How Do YOU Value Your Writing?

To be a writer is to have the ability to put pen to paper. To tell stories, one needs the ability to make one up or at least be able to make one sound plausible, whether it be verbal or on paper. But, to really get to the meat of a writer is to find out how much they value their writing.

Hmmm. Never thought about that have you?
Here's another one. How do you value yourself?
How important are you?
How important are you to yourself?
How important are you to your day?
How important are you to your community?

If your community is WARA, you are very important. As some singing group will sing, all God's creatures have a place in the choir. Here in WARA everyone has a place in the choir of voices that make up such a wonderful group. Without one of us, we are all diminished.

If you are important to your day, then it is pretty well important to keep thinking about yourself and what you need to get through the day. Have you been thinking about you?

How important you are to yourself shouldn't really need to be said, but sometimes we give so much of ourselves to others, who seem to be in more need, that we fade away from our own thoughts and become as nothing in our own lives. That was a long sentence. Please re-read and think about it. Then quit. The answer is quite simple. If you are so important to others that they rely on you, then if follows you must be important to them. Now, think about that. If you are important to them, then you have greater value. Maybe you might want to consider that a person of great value might be a little bit important to themselves!!

If you are important to yourself, which you've just proven you must be, then why aren't you putting some of the things you think are important ahead in the queue of things needing done?

Have you proven to yourself you have value?

If you have value, then it follows that the things you think are important must have value too. Like your writing. Are you treating your writing as if it has value or are you getting to it last?

Did you like this exercise in logic?

I did it and didn't like what I discovered. I discovered that I was putting my writing, something that is a part of me, last. Why would I do that? Because I saw it as not as important and immediate as other things. Well, Duh! If I am that way, then why would anyone else honor my writing time? Quick answer--they wouldn't!

By never thinking about my writing creativity's importance, I let it drift away.....

Lucky for me, I can rethink my position. Grasp the initiative. Put my rear in the seat in front of my computer and tell the world to go find themselves something important in their own activities. I found mine.

9 comments:

Pat Davids said...

I love reading your posts, Nina. "Without one of us we are all diminished."

That is so true of WARA and of romance writers in general. It's a profession that values other writers. I find that very satisfying.

I believe I know my importance in my family circle, in my writing circles and in the general scheme of things. I'm a long way from "the best and the greatest", but I enjoy a challenge. I still have time to make it a little farther up the hill.

Thanks for making us take a closer look at our most valuable asset. Ourselves.

Pat Davids said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Becky A said...

Hmm, Nina, you're hurting my brain:)
I've never thought it through this far, but you're right. We must see that we, and what we do, are important or we'll never get anything of value to ourselves done.
It's far too easy to let everyone else fill up our schedules.
You got any wisdom on how to stop procrastinating when you do have the time?????

Rox Delaney said...

Hey, Becky! I can't give you any tips on stopping procrastination, but I can pass on a million ways to keep it up. ;)

Rox Delaney said...

Ah, Nina, this is it.

"If I am that way, then why would anyone else honor my writing time?"

We spend so much time being valuable to others, we forget we have value, too. A great reminder! Although my youngest wouldn't agree when she's hungry. ;)

Nina Sipes said...

This article is one of the ways my writer's brain works. It runs down paths to get to the essence of things. It is funny sometimes where it leads me. Quite often I find the essence is a long way from the perception.

Take the perception that writing is a glamorous thing. Yep, I can see Rox and Pat in their gauzy nighties, sitting, eating bon-bons, swigging wine, as they type in an attic with window overlooking a romantic expanse, with a chaise handy to sit in to dreamily contemplate their next chapter--a small fire in the fireplace....

Reality or perception?

But, if we don't put our writerly selves ahead of some things in the que of life, we'll never get anywhere. That part of us is special and needs some importance attached to it by ourselves.

Oh, and about that procrastination thing, Becky. Here's a funny little moment for you. I try to follow flylady.net when I can (its a help site) and Wednesday's are supposed to be anti-procrastination day. So I was asking someone about how they handle making the little decisions in life that clutter up the tops of things. I got one of those DUH moments when I said I needed a decision day. They asked me if anti-procrastination day wasn't the same as a decision deadline day. My brain gets caught up in semantics all the stinking time--which is why my books are wordy and overworked!
I bless you, oh WARA members that help keep me going forward!

Rox Delaney said...

I can't speak for Pat, but my gauzy nightie is made of fleece, wine makes me puke, my attic is full of my offsprings' non-romantic junk, and my chaise is out being repaired after the g-kids bounced on it too many times. And that clutter on the desk is a foot high, but who cares, right?

By the way, what's reality? Oh, yeah, it's what we get away from when we're writing. *wink*

Nina Sipes said...

Another myth busted!

Pat Davids said...

I don't have a gauzy nightie. I large furry red robe with fleece lined slippers.

I don't have an attic, but I have a wonderful screened in back porch with a fire pit just outside. In good weather, I can write there and I love it.

I often sip wine in the evening but I don't do bon-bons.

Mostly, I stare at the wall in front of my desk and try to make imaginary people talk to me. It's kind of hard some days.