Hover Boards and Writing
Photo by Frank Tarczynski
For Christmas my wife and I bought our boys a hover board. Not something they wanted, but it’s something they loved to play with when they visit their cousins in Chicago. My kids are a few years younger than their cousins, so every time they tried to ride their hover board my boys would fall on their ass.
Every day for the last week I’ve taken my boys to a park to practice riding their new hover board, which requires a whole lot of balancing and learning to trust themselves. As to be expected, the first few days were a bit of a mess - face plants, nicked up hands, bloodied knees, etc. Thankfully no trips to the ER and nothing that a warm bath and ice cream couldn’t fix.
After a few days, they started to get the hang of it. Their balance improved, and they didn’t need to hold my hand as I guided them around the blacktop. Not only did their muscle memory learn how to ride the hover board, but their trust in themselves - their confidence - started to shine. Today I sat back and watched as they rode around the blacktop, chasing each, laughing and having fun.
Learning to ride a hover board is a lot like writing: it’s about balance, falling down and getting back up, and trusting yourself.
When it comes to writing, balance is critical and, I feel, not talked about enough. What I mean when I say BALANCE is learning how to manage your time between writing and every day life. Sure, I’d love to sit down at 8:00 am and write non-stop until midnight…but life get’s in the way —- and it should! Balance in writing means using time wisely and efficiently. Scheduling writing sessions/sprints, tracking how long projects take, and protecting your writing time are essential practices for creating balance in your writing life.
My boys fell down A LOT when they were learning how to ride their hover board. It was inevitable. The same can be said about writing: writing is more about getting up after you’ve fallen then being able to stand. No one writes a breakout hit right out the gate without falling on their face or ass or both many times. (Some fall more than others.) But falling down isn’t the habit that should be practice because it’s inevitable. What should be practiced is getting up. Every writer falls, but the successful writers get up and keep going.
I think the hardest “skill” to teach a child is being able to trust themselves. Trust is so challenging to describe, let along show, to a young kid. It’s something that kids have to learn through falling down, getting up, and winning small battles. Through all the scrapes and bruises, my boys learned to trust themselves whenever they stepped on the hover board. Trust is the main ingredient in writing. It’s not creativity. It’s not imagination. It’s not technical skill. It’s trust: being confident in what you write, how you write it, and with whom you share it. Trust can’t be taught, but it can be learned through repeatedly falling down and getting up, and by balancing your writing life with every day life.
Whenever I’m having a difficult day writing or I’m just not feeling good about myself as a writer, I know it’s because either I’m unbalanced, I’m not getting up after falling down, or I don’t trust myself. The beauty is that I can always put fingers to keyboard and just start writing.
Today’s Accomplishments
ALMOST done with DADLY. Made some fantastic edits to a few key scenes that I’m happy with.
Revised my short story SAINT CHRISTOPHER in order to submit it with DADLY to the Circle of Confusion fellowship. I thought about submitting another script, but I want to showcase additional types of writing I do.
Created a spreadsheet to accompany my operating plan, which includes:
Time-On-Task: for recording how long I spend on each task for each project. Great way to make adjustments to writing schedule and routine.
Submission Tracker: I aim for 100 rejections every year. My tracker is simple and just records the date, project being submitted, where the project is being submitted (fellowship, contest, query), and if I received any responses from fellowships and/or queries, or if I placed in a contest.
Expenditures: Gotta keep the money straight!
Created a folder for 2021 Fellowships and created a sub-folder for the Circle of Confusion fellowship. I’ve already uploaded material that will be used in the fellowship application. I like to store my submission materials so I can review and see what’s working/worked and what isn’t.
Tomorrow’s Tasks
FINISH DADLY. I literally have 2 scenes to fix and then I’m golden — I think.
Review loglines for DADLY and SAINT CHRISTOPHER to make sure they’re crisp and ready to go.
Review/revise personal statement for Circle of Confusion fellowship application.
Write out long term goals and how the Circle of Confusion fellowship can help me achieve my goals.
