What does it mean to be serious about a pursuit?

If you've read my blog (and yes, there's an ironic point to be made in there that the very fact that I even keep a blog illustrates this) you'll know that I'm a writer. Currently I fit into the "aspiring" category, in that nobody has seen fit to pay me (much) for my craft, but I expect to change that eventually. Currently writing is something *else* I do, along with all the other things that come with the SuperMom cape. I know that over time, my time and career path and life goals and children will change, and I will have time for things I don't have time for now (and will stop doing things that currently consume a lot of my time) and thus I write, and dream, and hope. And I plan and get things done, too.

But on one of my writing boards, folks got talking about what it means to be a "serious writer." And it turns out I have serious opinions about this, and they don't fit well with what some might define as a "serious writer." There are blog posts, books, and workshops galore on this subject, but most seem to include some set of rules or another (even if in a veiled way.) They almost all include some sort of "write every day." While I agree some general guidelines are probably good, the one interesting thing about writing is - there are no rules (there is no spoon.)

My thoughts on writing can generally be summed up like this:

I am serious, but like many serious folk, I balk at the generalizations around what it means to be serious about writing.

I'm serious in that I believe my work should earn money. I believe in the quality of the work I do.

But I don't fit into a nice square box where I wake up early and write 60 minutes a day and finish 4 pages a day and...

Instead, I write intensely, occasionally. I write in bursts of a thousand, two, three words at a time. I write like a maniac some of the time. I think about writing almost all of the time. But I have a complex life with people counting on me for other things, so I have to juggle it all. And it turns out I'm just not one of those drip dribble every day writers. Which is *fine*. But I'm still dang serious. Really.

I have a feeling you're serious about some of your life goals and ambitions, too, and that they may fail to fit neatly into tidy packages of what others expect being serious about that goal means. What are your goals and how are you different from what others might expect of someone pursuing that goal?

 

Comments

[Melanie Crouse]

Since we are twins, I'd have to say that my goals are exactly the same as your goals, and I work on them in a very similar way. If I lived in a perfect world, I'd write an amazing novel every November, and spend the rest of the year cleaning it up, outlining the next year's novel, and writing short stories.

This has been an odd year though. Fixing up my house and getting it ready to sell has eaten into my writing time so much that it's close to non-existent right now. But I'm STILL a serious author, and I've got so many plot ideas swirling around in my head that it's going to explode if I don't get some writing time soon!