Writing Wednesday: When Life Gives You Lemons…

When life gives you lemons…write yourself a scene where your protagonist is drinking lemonade! Hardy har har, I know. But seriously, this post is about never giving up when all you want to do is sit down, curl in the fetal position, and cry until someone gives you a bar of chocolate…and then cry some more.

Truthfully, I don’t have a lot of advice for getting through these rough times. I know what they feel like, and I felt like I was drowning under the negativity, under the defeat. It’s rough. I hadn’t written for about 8 months or so because I had to finish up law school and take the bar exam. All I can tell you is what I did, and maybe, my experience can help you too.

I approached my problem like a 12 step recovery plan. First, I had to acknowledge that I had a problem. I, Nisha Sharma, was under the false assumption that I was never going to get published. I, Nisha Sharma, hated feeling like I was never going to get published.
I then I had to determine, what’s a girl to do in that situation?

I didn’t start writing because I wanted to sell to New York. I started writing because I LOVED it. Because I had these characters talking to me in my head and I couldn’t stop them until I poured their words out on a page. I was so happy when I was neck deep in a story and I was the artist that pieced the story together.

So I had to find the love again. There were a couple ways to do that. The first was to dive right in and start writing something new. I tried that but everything I wrote settled like medicine in my mouth. It wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t good enough, why was I wasting my time?

I went a different route when I found that route wasn’t working for me. I went back to all the notebooks I had ever filled with stories and poetry and I started reading. It took me a couple weeks to get through all the notebooks and I have to say, most of it was crap. However, I could FEEL how much I loved writing when I read those notebooks. And that was a wonderful revelation.

I then went back to the books that inspired me to start writing. Shel Silverstein, Nora Roberts, Judy Blume, Jane Austen. I read them ALL and all I wanted to do then was write.

I was cured! Or so I thought. The last step of my recovery process was to surround myself by positive energy. Going to a conference, a writer’s retreat, a workshop, was the best way to accomplish this. I enjoyed the company of great friends who only had good things to say about their manuscripts. Absolutely NO talk about the business of writing because sometimes, the business of writing can inhibit the passion behind the art. Not always, but yes, sometimes.

In the end, I finished another book and landed an agent after I finished my process. I guess I didn’t suck TOTALLY after all. Maybe just a little. And sucking isn’t too bad if you can improve upon it so you no longer suck. That’s the key: suckage as a writer is temporary.

Like I said: when life gives you lemons…write yourself a character who makes lemonade. Because if you want to be a writer, you’ll get sour moments in life, and sour moments are temporary as long as you stick with it and remember how much you love writing.

Cheers!