Just give it up kid!

I would like to write a little bit today about the value of quitting. Yes, I know that sounds odd. Quitters ar not very popular with the mainstream. Quitting is frowned upon as a fault and not a virtue. However, as a young writer I found a hidden value in quitting and I'll tell you why.

The writing process was very difficult for me. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The "creative writing" classess I had taken were absolutely useless, the teachers had no idea how to teach creativity or even the fundamentals of the craft of writing. I was working a job I hated (7pm-7am driving a forklift, then going home to care for my son while my wife worked and getting at most 2 hours of sleep a day) all because I wanted time to dedicate to writing. You can imagine how frustrated I was. I understand how frustrated you might be in your efforts to write your novel. And, this is where quitting comes in.

I frequently gave up. I said, "I quit, I'm done, it's never going to happen." And then, one,two, three weeks down the line and I started up again. I could not quit. I had a deamon inside me that had to come out and would not leave me alone.

You see the nice thing about quitting occassionally is that it will prove to you who you truly are and what you are truly intended to be. If you quit your novel and never return, great. Not everyone was meant to be a novelist and there is no shame in that. It simply means that your life's path lies down a different road. But, if you tak up the pen again you know that you are doomed. There is no getting around it. THE NOVEL HAS CHOSEN YOU. IT IS YOUR MASTER AND YOU MUST OBEY.

And, so when that happens you must take up the pen and resolve yourself with the stoicism of a, hmm, let's see, with the stoicism of a Stoic to write and revise, write and revise, write and revise until what must be has come to pass.