The following quote is pulled straight from today’s email newsletter from Stephen Elliott, who, if you’re not currently reading you should start right now. In fact, let the following quote serve as your start, and then go buy this and this (hurry though, before the Rumpus police show up and make me take down all their branding and direct quotes):
…you have to have something big in your life that you do for free. If it’s something like a book, and you try to get paid for it when it’s done, there’s nothing wrong with that of course. You should. But you have to be doing something creative that is not about money at all, even if it happens to make you money later. Otherwise you’ll always be angry.
Truer words have not been heard by me for sometime. (like really, truly deep-in-your-gut heard)
I’m going to own up. I’m angry right now because I am not totally ecstatic about my new job. Previously, I was working for a mindfuck who liked to make everyone feel as shitty and empty as he was. (Judge much, Josey?)
Now I work for a really great person.
…at a company where the culture–I am quickly learning–is scramble, scramble, scramble and act really busy by being really busy with inconsequential tasks.
I’ve read too many books focusing on the your-life-is-bigger-than-bullshit-work theme (see last post) to fall victim to ineffective and soul-sucking company cultures.
Shewwwww, that felt good. I was being so happy-go-fuck-yourself about my new job that I forgot how good it feels to be slap-me-across-the-face honest.
Speaking of honest, that’s going to be my “something big in my life that I do for free.” I’m going to be fucking honest from now on, right here. Starting with number 10 from this list. I may even start later tonight. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to wait until after midnight to post again so as not to be one of those compulsive three-times-a-day-bloggers.
Good on you—let the wild rumpus begin!
absolutely
(i am imagining our crew of wild writers rumpaging (i’m getting a red squiggly line under rumpaging…how is that not a word?!) through some thick forest with our laptops and lyra’s notebooks tucked snugly under our one arm as we slash away hanging limbs with the other, cutting to the core of it. the wild rumpus to each of our stories.)
And we will rumpus away for a year and a day, until we each find an agent who loves us best of all.
(I like rumpaging—rumpassing sounds way too suggestive)
I love, love, love that quote. How true, how absolutely true. I was so angry before I seriously began writing because my life isn’t my own without some sort of creative endeavor. And the beauty of it is that once you begin one creative endeavor you run out of time to do all the things you want to do. If there’s ever a good problem to have, I think it’s that one.
yes time.
i woke up earlier this morning, using an alarm clock on the weekend which is strongly frowned upon in this house, to exercise. but now, i;’ve decided i need to writer.
right now, it feels like i may only have time for one: exercising or writing. why are the two juxtaposed against one another in my head? why can’t it be i work, write, i exercise and the juxtaposed things are: i watch tv or i go shopping. or i talk on the phone or i sit outside staring at nothing drinking coffee…
The thought of a soul sucking job makes me cringe, and I’m almost at that point where I have no choice. I’m holding out a bit longer, planning time away in the woods to finish my current wip and get the queries out, but it’s not open ended.
For years, I nurtured my kids’ creativity while letting my own fester. Last month I started an art class, drawing now and painting later, and I love it. I find myself picking up my sketchpad more and more and it feels so right.
Good luck on that #10. Cannot wait to hear more.
“in the woods”
that’s the second time those words have showed up. per teri’s recommendation (she’s going to have us all buried in books before we make it out of here alive!) i started nick flynn’s the ticking is the time bomb. she’s right. everyone should read it.
he talks of everyone gets lost in the woods.
#10! #10! #10! Yea!!!!!
Feel free to load up my email box with posts. I’m ready. You’re ready.
okay, it’s on. let me get my coffee first.
I’ve so got my eye on you, girl! Yes. The freedom of anonymity. It’s golden. I feel like I can’t write what I want on my blog anymore due to editors vetting me (as I try to sell myself as a YA writer), and my dad stumbling into heretofore dad-free space (wasn’t there an SNL skit called Shit, My Mom’s on Facebook?), and then there’s various bread-and-butter clients for my freelance gigs. Ugh.
I want to put a little more #10 in my life too.
i didn’t see the SNL skit, but i could write one called, “shit, my mom may be reading my anonymously written blog and now i can’t help but censor myself…still.”
also, can i steal, “Dads Stumbling into Heretofore Dad-Free Space” or my memoir. it would be one of those contextual layered titles (or all of them that way?). Or maybe I should just call it, “Get out of my fucking head!” (it could be the follow-up to “go the fuck asleep”)
I think Shit, my mom may be reading my anonymously written blog and now I can’t help but censor myself … still is a freaking genius title! But feel free to have the dad one two.
We are so in the same place right now.
And isn’t Stephen Elliott hitting it out of the park lately?
if we’re sharing a space, may i recommend Nick Flynn’s Ticking is the Time Bomb? (or am I seconding Teri’s recommendation?)
Seriously, it’s the book i’ve been waiting to read during the last almost two years when this transition started to occur within me. i’ve got stuff going in my head that i’ve mostly projected onto my work (i’m unhappy here, i quit and i’m still unhappy, i find a new job, i’m unhappy = it’s not you’re fucking work. you’re unhappy.)
anyway, try it out. it feels like someone is holding my hand and saying, “here walk this way.”
…i feel the urge to quote the jesus footprints poem here, but am afraid someone who doesn’t know me–like you guys know me–would take it for real and totally miss the sardonic reference.
I’ll get this book. I keep seeing Flynn’s name so I’ll take it as a sign.
My situation is a little different because I didn’t quit my last job, but let’s say if you trace back a few years, it’s clear. I blame my jobs for what’s going on inside me. My lack of satisfaction is because of choices I’ve made, they are not external factors.