Saturday, October 20, 2012

I Dreamed a Dream

Everyone has a dream, something they want, something they want to do, something they want to be different.  But let's be honest, most people's dreams don't come true.  They are just ideas that for a moment make you feel like something is possible.  You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.  If your dream is to be on Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White and Pat Sajack aren't just going to appear at your door and beg you to spin the wheel.

Whatever you're dream might be, you have to work at it.  It won't just fall in your lap.  Last night I was watching Charlie Rose interview J.K. Rowling and once again I realized how much I am failing at my attempt to be a writer. Yes, I write and some people think by doing that I should consider myself a writer, but I don't.  My dream is to get a book I wrote published and until that happens I don't consider myself a writer.

The three Ds of writing are desire, determination and discipline. And actually you can say you need those three things to make any dream come true.  I have the desire and the determination but I struggle with the discipline.  Finding time to write is always difficult and making yourself write after you've worked an 8 hour day is hard.  At any writers conference you go you're told that you have to give something up in order to find time to write (sleep, watching TV, reading, spending time with friends, Facebook, blogging - wait that counts, doesn't it?).  If you can do that you're half way there.  The other part is where discipline comes in.  You have the time, now write.  It was kind of like when you were in school and it was time to study.  Who hasn't made their bed, cleaned out the closed, sorted their socks, before they could start studying (fondly called procrastination)? 

I am constantly struggling to find that balance.  There are things I won't give up, like sleep.  Waking up an hour early to write before work is not an option.  And even if I did, anything I would write at 6 a.m. would be totally unreadable,  Lately I've been trying to write during my lunch hour (time I normally spending reading) but it's hard.  It's a limited time period and part of that time is finding someplace quite and seclusive to work.  I know, I know, excuses, excuses.

So after watching J.K. Rowling last night I realized I won't ever have the perfect situation in which to write so I somehow have to make due with my current situation.  And if I want this dream to come true I'm going to have to work at it every single day (not just days when I feel like it or the time presents itself).  I am going to keep trying.  And whatever your dream might be you should keep trying too.  I've heard that all the hard work pays off.  We'll see....

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