Making the Old New Again

As the saying goes, the honeymoon is over. I’ve had my honeymoon with blogging – thank goodness this honeymoon didn’t involve fainting from the heat in the Mayan Ruins like my marital honeymoon did – and it’s time to get back in the groove with my old flame, the Novel. This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop blogging entirely but it does mean my musings may be a little less frequent. My old friend Novel has been neglected and when your characters start popping up in your dreams or while you’re shopping, it’s a wake up call to get back to it.

Which is tough for someone like me who falls in love with new ideas and new things all the time. Ask my family. When I was a kid, I hopped from sport to sport and friend group to friend group. NEW! NEW! NEW! Ask Dave about my affinity for newness. In the grocery store, I’m a sucker for NEW packaging or NEW products. No wonder I’ve made a career of marketing, advertising and journalism every day brings a new project, a new headline to write, a new piece of news to investigate. Whereas Dave prefers thrift stores and antique shops, I gravitate toward grand openings of new stores and anything marked NEW in a catalog. Thus my overstuffed dresser drawers and closets. Heck, someone actually manufactures “new car smell” because there’s not a person in the world who dislikes the sexy smell of a brand new car and all that buying a new car symbolizes. New stuff is fun. Exciting. Surprising. Enticing. Original. Unchartered territory. All of those words sound much more inviting than routine, same-old same-old, known entity.

Oy.

Recently, the Zits cartoon above drove home just how I was feeling on the Blog versus Novel fracas (now there’s a word we need to use more often!). The blog? A three-inch leopard print stiletto. Totally impractical but oh-so-fun. The novel? Total Birkenstock. Reliable, dependable, always there waiting for you, been working with it off and on (mostly off) for three-plus years. It’s not complete but I know where it’s going, know the upcoming pain of revision and tweaking and loving and nurturing the chapters into better shape. So much more work than my new friend the Blog where I can write whatever I want without worrying about plot structure, characterization, narrative hook and arc, and conflict resolution. Dang, that novel sure requires a lot of upkeep and work. Whereas the Blog is an open playground filled with all of my favorite swings and things that go round and round until I’m thoroughly dizzy.

It’d be easy to ignore the Novel and concentrate on the Blog. But then I got to thinking. It is the Novel that got me to this point. It is the Novel that has supported my identity — oftentimes fragile — as a writer. It is the Novel that could bring in that elusive six-figure deal and potential gig on Oprah. (Pardon the massive pipedream). It is the Novel that deserves my energy, no matter how alluring the call of the Blog with its instant gratification and newness is. I need to stick with my Birkestocks and find a way to add a little leopard-print to the old battered straps and cork midsole.

My former writing group compadre, Jack Kerley, who has actually made the elusive six-figure book deal a reality, once told me that the hardest part of being a writer was putting writing before all else. Before social engagements. Before paying work. Before friends and family. You’d think that we writers would want to do nothing more than write, write, write all day. But writing is a solitary endeavor. It’s you and the notebook or computer screen. It required discipline (another thing I’m not so good with) and passion. And if your passions are running amok, there’s no way the Novel is going to get done.

A few months ago, I was willing to brush off what Jack had told me. But no more. I’ve had about three months to adjust to a NEW life in Akron and new surroundings and new places to run and hike and explore. Now it’s time to buckle up my trusty Birkenstocks and start walking toward the finish line. Just thinking about the Novel in this way has made it fun and exciting again. Of course…what does it say about me that my metaphor about the Novel has something to do with shoes?!?!?

The good news is, I’ve had a great role model in the area of discipline and passion. That’d be Dave. The other night he mentioned that he barely remembers this Spring and early Summer because  he was so focused on finishing his dissertation. I have never witnessed someone working as hard and as passionately on one project as Dave. Admittedly, there were days I found his singular focus a tad bit unhealthy and sorely lacking in the area of natural sunlight and air (I called it “grad school face”), but what he was doing was not unlike what Jack had described.

What Dave called his “sense of purpose.” I called “amazing.” He sacrificed plenty of Saturday night invitations and even set music aside, all necessary so he could achieve what he’s achieved. Which ultimately has provided me with the opportunity to focus on fiction now. Dave’s pursuits were very solitary, very isolating, and challenging. He lived and breathed his dissertation idea for the better portion of two years before seeing it come to fruition. Very akin to birthing a book. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t walked in his Birkenstocks can truly understand what he went through, and what he set aside to make it happen.

So, this is not a complete breakup with the Blog but it certainly points to postings being uploaded less than daily. Besides, my mom keeps badgering me about the subpar novels on the bookshelves, and says that, surely, I can do better than some of those other hacks.

As our Ireland friend Ann who is also getting back to her own friend The Novel says, “Sure then, it’ll be grand.”