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The Spiritual Side of Writing
by Joyce Lavene

Greetings!

There is so much written all the time about how to write, where to send it, and how much you should be making on it that I thought it might be nice to take a time out from the business of writing. What about the spirit of the writer?

As writers, we are bruised and battered by what people expect from our work before it’s published and what they think about our work after we’ve published it. We spend our days fighting with our computers and email when we’re not battling with our words and editors. We have relatives and friends who think we’re crazy because there’s no future in what we’re doing and no sense in doing it.

We have jobs that take us away from what we really want to do, in order to make enough money to continue frantically finding time between what we should be doing, to write. We have children who need us, spouses who stifle yawns at our brilliant ideas for the next chapter, and dogs that have to go to the vet when we’re expecting to hear from an agent.

We have a dream that we’re trying to make happen. That’s what all writers have in common. We all started with a dream. Something that needed to be expressed from our souls. We all said “What if?” and we sent out our first query to an editor. We cried when it came back and the editor criticized. But we kept going. We developed stacks of rejections, nice ones and nasty ones, from editors and publishers we might never meet. And we kept dreaming.

All of our words emerge from a spiritual journey. How do we take that journey? What can we do to enhance and enrich ourselves in order to better enrich and enhance our art? How do we cope with the little hurts and the big disappointments that come in this business? How do we continue to grow as writers and as people?

This is the first in a series of columns about us, ALL OF US, who are writers and artists and dreamers. About the soul we’re always in danger of giving away for a decent royalty and a little recognition. About our dreams that are constantly being ridiculed and challenged.

Please join me here. Share your ideas and your heartbreak. Share your survival, your strength and your stories. Email me at joyce@joyceandjimlavene.com

Thanks,
Joyce


Joyce Lavene writes a little bit of everything with her husband/partner, Jim. They live in North Carolina with their three grown children and two grandchildren. She welcomes visitors to her websites:

http://www.joyceandjimlavene.com
http://www.sharynhowardmysteries.com