The Joy of Having
Written By Karina Fabian
Every now and then, we have Tabata week at the gym I
attend. If you don’t know Tabata, think
of it as being in labor: 20 seconds of
hard pushing and pain, followed by ten seconds of rest. Of course, drugs are discouraged and your
trainer might not appreciate it if you snarl, “This is your fault!” but it only
lasts an hour, and then you’re done until the next day. Sometimes, I enjoy going to the gym, but it
had been a crazy week, anyway, and my motivation was low, even less so for
Tabata, but I went.
Why? Even though I
didn’t look forward to going, I enjoyed having
gone.
That’s how it goes with writing sometimes. There are plenty of times when I don’t feel
like writing. Sometimes, other things in
life seem much more important, whether planning a surprise for my husband’s
retirement or doing dishes. Sometimes,
it’s looking at my Amazon sales and realizing that, should something horrible
happen to Rob, I would not be able to support my family on my writing. Rarely, but on occasion, a bad review or
comment from someone will make me wonder why I bother.
But why I bother in those moments is the same reason I
bother to go to the gym: Even if I don’t
want to write, I invariably enjoy having written.
There’s a definite satisfaction in a scene well crafted, a
character who comes alive on the keyboard, or a sentence that makes your eyes
sting with its poignancy. (Just wrote
one of those today, in fact.) There’s
getting that message out of the blue from a reader saying they loved my book,
or from an editor asking when the next story is coming. There’s that hope that this story, this
novel, will be the one to break through—but of course, that will never happen
if I don’t write it. I know, too, that
I’m in this for the long term. I love
writing. I love having written, and I
love going back over my own stories and marveling anew at the adventures I
lived without ever leaving my chair.
After eight months at the gym, including four or five weeks
of Tabata, I’ve lost 25 pounds. That
puts me at just under 145. One of the
ladies asked me what my ultimate goal was.
I suppose I could go for 120 or 125, which is what my weight from my
teens to my early thirties, but I realize that it doesn’t matter as much to me,
any longer. Maybe I’ll get there, but if
I can stay around 140 and keep going with my exercising, then I’m satisfied.
You know, I have to keep that same attitude with my
writing. Someday, I may make the NYT
best-seller list. I may find my Amazon
sales grow enough to let my husband quit his day job. But if that never happens, then if I can keep
writing and producing and find readers who love my work, then I’m
satisfied. Even when my motivation is
low, and things around me discourage me from my craft, I keep pounding away at
those words, the same way I pound away at the weights (minus the labor-like
groaning, of course.)
After all, the real satisfaction is in having written.
**************
Karina Fabian is on tour for her latest book, Mind Over Psyche.
Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic,
Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has plenty of voices in her head without
being psychic. Fortunately, they fuel
her many stories, like the Mind Over trilogy. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and
book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband,
Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian
executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving
daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.
Find Karina at:
Labels: circuit training, joy of having written, Karina Fabian, Magic Mensa and Mayhem, Mind Over Psyche, Mind Over trilogy, Tabata
