Honoring Your Reality

Gabriela Pereira talks about honoring your reality as a writer (DIY MFA Podcost #47, that is understanding that each person has their own way to be a writer. Sometimes what works for someone else isn’t going to work for you and what worked for you in the past might not work today.

I bounced up against something that made me take an unplanned time out. In August, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, it was stage 0, but I still knew that I would have a bunch of doctor appointments, radiation appointments, and some surgery to deal with. I had been working on a non-fiction project and on poetry. I looked at all that and gave myself a timeout until the new year. Even though my available hours might not change much, and it wasn’t constantly on my mind, I felt like I had a balloon taking up space in my head. When the seed of a poem came to me, I wrote it down in my notebook for use later. By not putting pressure on myself to get writing done, I did still get several first drafts written. I gave myself permission to leave the book alone, and now that I’m past all the big stuff, I anticipate starting back up on it over the next week or so.

I think being gentle with myself was less stressful and gave me maneuvering room when I really needed it. It also means that I don’t see the book as a burden, which might have been the case if I made myself continue when my head was not in the space. So now, onward and upward!