Thanks for this pep talk. Exactly what I needed as I am feeling like a fake today as I procrastinate by reading posts, but these things fuel me. You know just what to say to me to make me feel better. I am also an Enneagram 4, so all the feelings can stop me in my creative tracks. Thanks for your honesty and helping me not feel alone.
It's so easy to get waylaid, isn't it? You're definitely not alone in that! I tell myself it's ok to take time away, to move slowly, as long as I get back to it. x
Recently I brought a long-standing dream to fruition. I bought a hybrid SUP/kayak that's inflatable, so I can throw the whole backpack that it comes in in the back of my car and take it anywhere. (Originally, I just wanted one so I could walk the two blocks from my house to the neighborhood boat launch down to the inlet out to the Finger lake I live next to, but now I'm dreaming bigger.) The kids and I drove north on the lake a bit yesterday to take it for a inaugural spin and I got LIT RIGHT UP. The sun was shining, the air was hot and the water warm. I can't mind my phone or wear headphones to listen to anything while I'm trying to stand up and paddle on a tippy, inflatable board. I just have to be present, in the moment and my body. How often does that happen anymore? It was DELICIOUS.
I love this! My daughter was just talking this morning about trying paddle-boarding with friends, and now I'm even more convinced that we should BOTH try it. Sounds delicious indeed.
We are going out kayaking--while traveling in Colorado--this week! We got the inflatables during the pandemic and it's true, they are so easy to throw in the car and take anywhere there is a calm body of water to float in :) I felt this way last summer, too, when I decided to buy a hammock for the back yard. Just being in the cocoon with a book in the sunshine but also protected from it is magical.
Hi Maggie! Love this :) So! I am a writer too, but sometimes I think I am more a poet because it pours out more easily. I am a gardener and a birder, a mother, lover, friend, and friend to nature. I cry easily, but not when I get bad news. I am someone who planted a meadow over her lawn, which kind of looks messy and lopsided (like me) and not glorious at all. But I do know my collapsed meadow is keeping some Pacific tree frogs sheltered and happy, and some flowers are beginning to open, so that's something! I love to beachcomb and collect stones and broken bits of pottery and petrified wood. Sometimes I collect cool pieces of wood just because. I love dogs. I create art, and some of it might be bad. I take photos. I love to laugh and make others laugh. :)
MAGGIE! It is as if you crawled right into my foggy brain and brought language to how this body and heart and soul are feeling. I started writing ‘later in life’. That is to say I started writing for myself later in life. I never studied craft. I get tongue tied when someone asks what I do. I could spew of myriad of things, all might cause their eyes to glaze over. What I want to say is I am a writer. I am a poet. With a strong emphasis on each word, including the period at the end. But I often trip on my own self doubt as the words leave my mouth. I feel most myself in the presence of my writing community: here I call myself a writer a poet and believe it with all of my heart.
I worked as a food writer for years ( testing and developing recipes ) but after having 3 children I always found my true work and most important was being a mother ..especially after dealing with cancer when my children were young. I always found it caused an inner chuckle when I would say I'm a mom and receive the response " I mean what else do you do ..as if it wasn't enough "
To enjoy motherhood, to watch and be a part of our children's growth and development is such a gift. I so enjoy your words and writing. Can't wait for you book x
I really appreciate this post. I’ve always thought it ridiculous that earning money from something has any relevance.
I’ve always called myself an artist bc that’s what feels right.
I’m also a mother and teacher and so much more, but my essence is creating—- whether it’s writing songs or poems, making photographs, collages, whatever.
Money has nothing to do with it.
I learned this very clearly when I did work as a professional photographer & hated it… couldn’t wait to get back to my own projects!
People w access to money are very lucky, bc they can pursue whatever they choose and not have to compromise w the whole day job drag.
But the people I most admire are the ones who create because they love it, because they need to, and must fit their art in between the cracks.
And I appreciate you sharing that even “accomplished” artists who did indeed make a living from their passion can feel imposter syndrome.
Thank you for this question. Writing actually lights me up. Creative writing. If I'm not in the meaty middle of a piece, then I feel at odds. I love being in that space where you're thinking of a new tangent or angle, a tweak to the format, or a wondrous new sentence all day and night, consciously and subconsciously. I started creative writing (memoiristic essays) when I turned fifty and my oldest was graduating from high school and I am SO GLAD I did. Life transforming.
I so enjoyed your message. I’ve been writing since college. I did not enjoy poetry, I never had the correct answers to the professors questions. I started journaling and realized poetry was more enjoyable. I could put memories down and no one knew what I was thinking! It wasn’t till COVID that I started taking online classes and became better at writing poetry. I began by giving my poems away as birthday gifts. Now I write poetry daily and post on the internet. I still have not figured out how to make a living doing it. But you and Victoria Chang ( I saw you both together online) give me hope. It’s now been 5 yrs of taking myself seriously. One step at a time. It’s just in this past 6 months that others are starting to like my poetry. Thank you Maggie! Eva Weitzel
I rarely mention writing when meeting new people, I usually say “I’m in tech” and “I have 3 children including twins”. I’ve been writing sporadically my entire life and consider it part of my identity but I have close friends who don’t read what I write or, even if I ask them, they don’t provide feedback. And yet writing is so personal that when I share a post (or a poem) and nobody is interested it feels like a part of me is rejected - and I started trying to hang on to a couple of people who do read what I write but it’s a slippery slope. I have an instagram account with poems but I’m unsure whether I should even try to publish them somewhere else? Or just keep writing for myself without expecting it to resonate with other people… I do know that despite all that I love writing even when I don’t do much of it.
I am a teacher, though I am also spending my time trying to figure out who I am outside of being a teacher, because that is an identity that can get a little too all encompassing. I am a music lover--playing and listening; it's in the bones--who saw Sarah McLachlan and Band of Horses last week, and later in the summer will see The Indigo Girls and Sheila E., two concerts during the week I turn 48, which is a great way to spend a birthday week, in my book. I love this stage of middle age that seems to be made for answering these questions anew, even when those periods of sitting in the questions feel murky. I'm in the midst of a project of trying new things--drawing, new yoga studio, traveling to new places, sticking with creative writing even when I feel uncertain--which is exciting and scary and I am doing it anyway!
I love teaching but I no longer like saying I’m a teacher, just like at one time I labeled myself as a wife and then mother and although I am both I no longer like defining myself with these dead end labels. I like your questions. They are great openers for conversation! I think I’ll start putting this way of meeting people into action.
Two weeks ago my cardiology surgeon asked me what I did. I responded, "I'm a secretary." He pushed, asking all sorts of questions to get beneath that answer. Finally my best friend with me at the appointment said, "She's a writer." Instantly the atmosphere shifted. He confessed his his yearning to publish in Bellevue. I laughed, "Send it. I did. I have an essay there." And we were off! My surgeon is my newest best friend.
Ah, The Individualist; I'm an Enneagram 1, the Perfectionist. Nice meeting you.
In a women's writing group founded in Cincinnati called Women Writing for (a) Change, we use readback lines that impact us in someone's reading of a written piece. "“I’m a writer,” I’m telling you about more than what I do for a living. I’m telling you who I am." The gardener analogy is so poignant. There is a literally no qualification, no entry exam for being a gardener, yet it's accepted as part of who you are.
I had written poetry for myself and, rarely, in memoriam of dear friends' passings until I met my partner. I introduced myself to him online with a poem entitled Yellow Tie Guy. It turns out that the Source that flows through us had it's own expression, much to my (and his) astonishment and delight. Publishing poetry is coming...
Thanks for this pep talk. Exactly what I needed as I am feeling like a fake today as I procrastinate by reading posts, but these things fuel me. You know just what to say to me to make me feel better. I am also an Enneagram 4, so all the feelings can stop me in my creative tracks. Thanks for your honesty and helping me not feel alone.
It's so easy to get waylaid, isn't it? You're definitely not alone in that! I tell myself it's ok to take time away, to move slowly, as long as I get back to it. x
Recently I brought a long-standing dream to fruition. I bought a hybrid SUP/kayak that's inflatable, so I can throw the whole backpack that it comes in in the back of my car and take it anywhere. (Originally, I just wanted one so I could walk the two blocks from my house to the neighborhood boat launch down to the inlet out to the Finger lake I live next to, but now I'm dreaming bigger.) The kids and I drove north on the lake a bit yesterday to take it for a inaugural spin and I got LIT RIGHT UP. The sun was shining, the air was hot and the water warm. I can't mind my phone or wear headphones to listen to anything while I'm trying to stand up and paddle on a tippy, inflatable board. I just have to be present, in the moment and my body. How often does that happen anymore? It was DELICIOUS.
I love this! My daughter was just talking this morning about trying paddle-boarding with friends, and now I'm even more convinced that we should BOTH try it. Sounds delicious indeed.
You absolutely should. It's the best money I've spent in a long, long time.
We are going out kayaking--while traveling in Colorado--this week! We got the inflatables during the pandemic and it's true, they are so easy to throw in the car and take anywhere there is a calm body of water to float in :) I felt this way last summer, too, when I decided to buy a hammock for the back yard. Just being in the cocoon with a book in the sunshine but also protected from it is magical.
Hi Maggie! Love this :) So! I am a writer too, but sometimes I think I am more a poet because it pours out more easily. I am a gardener and a birder, a mother, lover, friend, and friend to nature. I cry easily, but not when I get bad news. I am someone who planted a meadow over her lawn, which kind of looks messy and lopsided (like me) and not glorious at all. But I do know my collapsed meadow is keeping some Pacific tree frogs sheltered and happy, and some flowers are beginning to open, so that's something! I love to beachcomb and collect stones and broken bits of pottery and petrified wood. Sometimes I collect cool pieces of wood just because. I love dogs. I create art, and some of it might be bad. I take photos. I love to laugh and make others laugh. :)
We have so many beautiful things in common. Thanks for sharing!
MAGGIE! It is as if you crawled right into my foggy brain and brought language to how this body and heart and soul are feeling. I started writing ‘later in life’. That is to say I started writing for myself later in life. I never studied craft. I get tongue tied when someone asks what I do. I could spew of myriad of things, all might cause their eyes to glaze over. What I want to say is I am a writer. I am a poet. With a strong emphasis on each word, including the period at the end. But I often trip on my own self doubt as the words leave my mouth. I feel most myself in the presence of my writing community: here I call myself a writer a poet and believe it with all of my heart.
I love this. Welcome, writer. 💗
Thank you for building us up ..
I worked as a food writer for years ( testing and developing recipes ) but after having 3 children I always found my true work and most important was being a mother ..especially after dealing with cancer when my children were young. I always found it caused an inner chuckle when I would say I'm a mom and receive the response " I mean what else do you do ..as if it wasn't enough "
To enjoy motherhood, to watch and be a part of our children's growth and development is such a gift. I so enjoy your words and writing. Can't wait for you book x
Oh, I know that "What else..." response! Something it's said out loud, sometimes just implied. Solidarity, Kate. x
I really appreciate this post. I’ve always thought it ridiculous that earning money from something has any relevance.
I’ve always called myself an artist bc that’s what feels right.
I’m also a mother and teacher and so much more, but my essence is creating—- whether it’s writing songs or poems, making photographs, collages, whatever.
Money has nothing to do with it.
I learned this very clearly when I did work as a professional photographer & hated it… couldn’t wait to get back to my own projects!
People w access to money are very lucky, bc they can pursue whatever they choose and not have to compromise w the whole day job drag.
But the people I most admire are the ones who create because they love it, because they need to, and must fit their art in between the cracks.
And I appreciate you sharing that even “accomplished” artists who did indeed make a living from their passion can feel imposter syndrome.
I guess we’ll be fighting that forever!!!
Thanks for this, Susanna. Yes—I loved writing when it *cost* me money. It’s a do-it-no-matter-what part of life for me.
Thank you for this question. Writing actually lights me up. Creative writing. If I'm not in the meaty middle of a piece, then I feel at odds. I love being in that space where you're thinking of a new tangent or angle, a tweak to the format, or a wondrous new sentence all day and night, consciously and subconsciously. I started creative writing (memoiristic essays) when I turned fifty and my oldest was graduating from high school and I am SO GLAD I did. Life transforming.
Life transforming—absolutely.
Good afternoon Maggie,
I so enjoyed your message. I’ve been writing since college. I did not enjoy poetry, I never had the correct answers to the professors questions. I started journaling and realized poetry was more enjoyable. I could put memories down and no one knew what I was thinking! It wasn’t till COVID that I started taking online classes and became better at writing poetry. I began by giving my poems away as birthday gifts. Now I write poetry daily and post on the internet. I still have not figured out how to make a living doing it. But you and Victoria Chang ( I saw you both together online) give me hope. It’s now been 5 yrs of taking myself seriously. One step at a time. It’s just in this past 6 months that others are starting to like my poetry. Thank you Maggie! Eva Weitzel
Here’s to taking yourself seriously (and being seriously playful)! Thanks, Eva.
I rarely mention writing when meeting new people, I usually say “I’m in tech” and “I have 3 children including twins”. I’ve been writing sporadically my entire life and consider it part of my identity but I have close friends who don’t read what I write or, even if I ask them, they don’t provide feedback. And yet writing is so personal that when I share a post (or a poem) and nobody is interested it feels like a part of me is rejected - and I started trying to hang on to a couple of people who do read what I write but it’s a slippery slope. I have an instagram account with poems but I’m unsure whether I should even try to publish them somewhere else? Or just keep writing for myself without expecting it to resonate with other people… I do know that despite all that I love writing even when I don’t do much of it.
I am a teacher, though I am also spending my time trying to figure out who I am outside of being a teacher, because that is an identity that can get a little too all encompassing. I am a music lover--playing and listening; it's in the bones--who saw Sarah McLachlan and Band of Horses last week, and later in the summer will see The Indigo Girls and Sheila E., two concerts during the week I turn 48, which is a great way to spend a birthday week, in my book. I love this stage of middle age that seems to be made for answering these questions anew, even when those periods of sitting in the questions feel murky. I'm in the midst of a project of trying new things--drawing, new yoga studio, traveling to new places, sticking with creative writing even when I feel uncertain--which is exciting and scary and I am doing it anyway!
Congrats on your new book!!
I love teaching but I no longer like saying I’m a teacher, just like at one time I labeled myself as a wife and then mother and although I am both I no longer like defining myself with these dead end labels. I like your questions. They are great openers for conversation! I think I’ll start putting this way of meeting people into action.
Two weeks ago my cardiology surgeon asked me what I did. I responded, "I'm a secretary." He pushed, asking all sorts of questions to get beneath that answer. Finally my best friend with me at the appointment said, "She's a writer." Instantly the atmosphere shifted. He confessed his his yearning to publish in Bellevue. I laughed, "Send it. I did. I have an essay there." And we were off! My surgeon is my newest best friend.
Ah, The Individualist; I'm an Enneagram 1, the Perfectionist. Nice meeting you.
In a women's writing group founded in Cincinnati called Women Writing for (a) Change, we use readback lines that impact us in someone's reading of a written piece. "“I’m a writer,” I’m telling you about more than what I do for a living. I’m telling you who I am." The gardener analogy is so poignant. There is a literally no qualification, no entry exam for being a gardener, yet it's accepted as part of who you are.
I had written poetry for myself and, rarely, in memoriam of dear friends' passings until I met my partner. I introduced myself to him online with a poem entitled Yellow Tie Guy. It turns out that the Source that flows through us had it's own expression, much to my (and his) astonishment and delight. Publishing poetry is coming...