Sometimes I question my sanity.

 

Honestly? It’s been one of *those* weeks. A week where you’d rather crawl into a hole and sleep than get out in the real world and be productive; a week where the workload piles up, the inbox runneth over with rejection emails, and you decide, all of a sudden, to delete the last three chapters of your work in progress and now must totally re-write the ending (or maybe that was just me).

 

Over the past few years I’ve learned that being a writer means making sacrifices. It means letting my daughter trash the living room while she’s watching Disney Princess movies. It means that, yes, tonight we’re having macaroni and cheese and fish sticks for dinner (again). It sometimes means opening my inbox and discovering that I’m okay as a writer, but my story just isn’t strong enough for the current market.

 

This was one of those weeks where I had to sit back and really think about everything I’m trying to accomplish. Am I doing too much at one time? Is my little girl too young to be watching movies about dragons and evil witches? Should I really let her use highlighters unsupervised? Is there any reason out there as to why I should finish this current project?  

 

As a writer, though, I’ve learned that this feeling is normal. I’ve learned that not only is it okay to question my sanity, but it’s okay to consider myself insane, even.

 

Being a writer means pushing forward, finishing the task, cooking the best macaroni possible, and getting back to work. It means staring at the laptop screen for so long that at the end of the day it feels like my eyeballs are going to fall out. It means reading and re-reading until the paragraph makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. So what if my little girl can quote major lines from the Wizard of Oz because she’s watched it so much? (From what I’ve heard I could, too, at her age . . . and I turned out okay . . . I think.)

 

Writing isn’t a glamorous occupation, but it’s something many feel we *have* to do. For us, it’s become an addiction.

 

So, to all the aspiring writers out there, I say: bring on the insanity.

 

Perhaps one day our hard work will pay off beautifully, bringing in enough money to not only pay the family therapy bill, but allow us to hire someone to cook that macaroni and cheese for us.

 

Let me know if you’re out there, because it would be nice to know that I’m not alone.

About The Author

Leigh Brescia grew up in North Carolina, spending most of her days playing in the woods behind her home and imagining she was a princess. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Communication from Mount Olive College and her Master’s degree from Fort Hays State University. As an undergraduate, she worked in the Office of Public Affairs, where she wrote press releases and feature articles for the local newspapers and campus magazines. She currently teaches online English composition courses for three universities, and an online “Writing Novels for Young Adults” course for UC Irvine.  Read more about Leigh Brescia.

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