Going back to writing

Power outage is not a fun thing.  My family and I were among the fortunate ones.  To us having no power for an extended period of time during extreme heat was quite unpleasant, but not life threatening.  (That said, we still had to evacuate ourselves to a different state, when the house temperature approached the boiling point.)

So, since we were lucky, we got to – I wouldn’t say – enjoy the situation, but at least make the most of it (what else can one do?)  We discovered that it is nice to indulge in the pleasures of retiring to bed when the sun goes down, telling flashlight-enhanced ghost stories, and doing some old-fashioned reading in the backyard in the early morning hours before the heat kicks in.  

No email, no blogging, no Twitter – and life still goes on.  That was one of my personal little “revelations.”  The first couple of days were tough, but the “silver lining” principle really works.  As days without electricity went by, I began to see my priorities more clearly.  I realized that all I really want to do is write.  I want to hear the voices of the unwritten characters again.  For that I’d have to turn down (or off) the buzz of the cyber world.

I still think that Internet, blogging, social media are great things, but as with anything in life, I suppose, it’s a matter of balance, finding a good writing/platform-building ratio.  Rachelle Gardner talks about it on her blog.  If you are an unpublished novelist – not a non-fiction writer – do check out her post (and the comments):   

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/should-unpublished-novelists-be-platform-building/

Back to writing.

Live for the Love of it,

The Happy Amateur