And Finally Back Up

It's been a while. I've been pretty busy with school, coaching, and life and have let my blog fall a bit to the side.

But I'm back.

And I'm back to talk about the post I made two months ago, about getting back up. I'm happy to say that I did it. I got back up. Even more important, I think it was worth it.

So let's backtrack. Two months ago I posted the beginning of my novel on two critique forums. At one place, it was really praised. At the second...well torn to shreds would be a good way to put it.

Saying it was a huge blow to my ego would be an understatement. I do believe there were some tears. And some second guessing about my choice to be a writer.



But I'm not a quitter.  I don't want to be someone who sees an obstacle and runs the other way. So I decided to be better.

When I teach, I sometimes ask my students to be brave. This is usually when I'm asking them to make huge changes to their work because they've missed the point of the assignment or if there's major problems in their writing. When I should just quit writing, I thought to myself, who am I to demand better from my students, to demand they start over again, that they try until they succeed...if I'm not willing to do it myself.

Thus, a new beginning was born.

It took a lot of time. Well...a lot of it was procrastinating time. There was letting my bruised ego heal, then end of term and grading got in the way, and the time to make my new beginning make sense...

But in the end. It worked. I have a new opening that I'm proud of. Today, I actually posted it up at the same forum that shredded it last time because learning to get back up is also about reminding yourself to be brave.

So I'm being brave.

And learning how to be a better writer while I do it.