Reverb #2

December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)

I'm not a writer.

I took a creative writing course in University. The Prof remarked that my stories were nothing like my personality. Of course, what she meant was that my stories were nothing like my persona. I had a well-developed extroverted persona--some even said bubbly--and the disconnect was in more places than just between my writing and my self.

This past summer, I "auditioned" to write a narrative history of Canada for a homeschooling curriculum company. After two chapter attempts--complete with a chapter by chapter breakdown for the book as well as maps for each of the chapters, I was told that while my enthusiasm was great, my writing was terrible.

And as I mourned the loss of a long-held dream I realised that is was my belief in their pronouncements that killed it: not what they said. I could have chosen to ignore what they said. I could have chosen to believe differently.

But I didn't.

Defeated, humiliated and discouraged. That's where I'm at about writing.

PS: This isn't turning out to be very cheery stuff, is it?