Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
All of our agents have slipped out of the office to spend the holidays with their families. We’ve picked from previous posts “The Best of” for your reading pleasure and pondering. Our office opens on January 5, 2015, and we’ll have new posts waiting for you then. In the meantime, Merry Christmas!
Life is all about choices, and when we choose to pursue a passion that’s time-consuming, we have to say no to other things. I’ve chosen to be a literary agent, which is pretty demanding. But I’m also a mom, a wife, a writer and editor. I exercise regularly, I see my friends, and I dedicate significant time to my kids. But pursuing my passions isn’t without a cost—I’ve had to let go of some perfectly good things.
So here are a few things I don’t do:
- I don’t watch much TV.
- I don’t scrapbook, knit or crochet.
- I don’t separate the whites from the colors.
- I don’t grow a garden.
- I don’t cook gourmet meals.
- I don’t play computer games.
- I don’t play golf or tennis.
- I don’t homeschool.
- I don’t remember everyone’s birthday.
- I don’t run marathons or 10K races.
and finally…
- I don’t sleep past 6am—7 even on weekends.
So, now that I’ve admitted to some things I’d like to do if I had more time… what about you?
Have you given up anything in order to pursue writing?
Tweetables:
What have you given up to pursue writing? Click to Tweet.
I don’t scrapbook, knit, cook gourmet meals or grow a garden. What don’t YOU do? Click to Tweet.
Sometimes pursuing your passion means giving up some perfectly good things. Click to Tweet.
Y’all had me thinking with this one. Not something to which I am accustomed at 0500.
The most striking thing I’ve given up is hard to define, but I guess one could call it a “comfortable narrowness of mind”.
When I began writing in earnest, I not only had to discipline my thoughts so they would be in craft-friendly sentences, but I also had to consider the questions to which my characters sought answers.
Some of these were questions I would have prefered to avoid, because they made me consider them in the context of my own life.
It was kind of like walking through the darkness…and suddenly a light comes on and you realize that you’ve been walking on a plank stretched across the Grand Canyon. A bit dizzying, a bit disorienting…and, in a sense, dangerous, at least to the rather smug and parochial persona one might have developed through prior years.
I hope everyone out there is having a wonderful Christmas Eve!
Looks like we have given up similar things. I don’t garden, knit, crotchet, or scrapbook. But the list goes on. I don’t make homemade soap, milk goats, make cheese, or sew like my sister. Although she writes too…I just don’t know when with all the goat milking. And I stay home to write most of the time, rarely going to town (we live in the mountains). But these are sacrifices I am eager to make, since I don’t like any of those other things and I love to write. And Andrew, as always, your words are inspiring. We do tend to get comfortable and writing pushes us out of the nest and forces us to feel and think and wrestle with the truth. Love it.
Goats! I am trying to convince Barbara that we need some.
Meanwhile, as propaganda, I have recast “Go Tell It On The Mountain” as “Goats Dwelling On The Mountain”, but no luck with that, either. Perhaps she isn’t musical…
I will share one verse. Comments, perhaps?
“When Mary went into labour,
she gave Joseph a revelation.
‘Next time that we travel, dear,
MAKE A RESERVATION!’
“Goats dwelling on the mount-ain…
over the hills,
and EVERYWHERE!
Goats dwelling on the mountain
where Jesus Christ was born…”
Well, my nephew likes it.
LOL, Andrew! “Make a reservation!” Even if it’s in a cave/stable. 🙂
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
Writing hasn’t required me to give up anything, but it has restricted my time and attention to all I do. Some things I don’t do so well anymore. Some things get done by the skin of my teeth. 🙂
You can always do what I do, and draw inspiration from “Jaws”, to make the skin of your teeth REALLY count.
Such a classic, huh, Andrew! I remember the first time I saw that movie … we had just moved, and our temporary housing was behind the drive-in theatre in Terrell, TX. I sat on the front porch and watched it. I was just entering middle school. Scared me to pieces. Ha!
I won’t name names, but someone had my girls watch a piece of it … and when you say “Jaws,” they run!! 🙂
The most significant thing I’ve given up is saying yes to demands on my time. I’ve learned to step back, breathe before I make any commitments which may interfere with my writing. I also go to bed by 10:00 and begin each day by meeting with God. I am much more productive when I dedicate my first hour to Him.
Huh? . . . I didn’t know you were supposed to separate the whites from the colors.
Thanks Rachelle and Mary Christmas.
I’ve given up TV and movies. The only movies I’ve seen in the last five or six years are the ‘Hunger Games’ movies and only because I adored the books.
I definitely don’t separate the colors from the white, and I’ve given up folding. I have four baskets of clothing, loosely sorted, that I draw from. Fortunately my husband is the same way, only he has one basket.
I don’t hang out with friends at bars or parties. The only time I see the inside of a bar is when my in-laws want to meet for drinks.
I gave up almost all the time I used to devote to artwork. (Photo realistic artwork attempts can take 20 or more hours easily.) I also gave up all of my crafts except for mending clothing. Does that count as a craft? I only mend because I’m poor.
I have limited my gaming to two or three hours a week, usually on Saturday with my husband.
Man, this is starting to sound like an obsession or something. 😉
I don’t get my nails done (except a yearly pedicure that a friend always gives me as a Birthday gift), have my hair professionally colored, spend a lot of money on clothes, or buy fancy shoes and purses. The feast-or-famine budget doesn’t allow it.
I have given up mid-week ladies’ Bible studies. Instead, I attend a wonderful one on Saturday mornings.
I have not volunteered for a school activity since we moved two years ago. I feel a bit guilty about that, but my son is fine with it. He’s in 7th grade, so he’d rather not have Mom embarrassing him at school.
I DO knit and crochet. I find it very helpful to have creative outlets that get me away from the computer. However, I make this an evening activity.
Any reading for pleasure is done after work.