Tuesday, 30 October 2012

WAXING THE keyBOARD


Back in mid-July I blogged about having one of those tumultuous weeks. Winning competition prizes, being published, starting a new business. Exciting times. Satisfying. It’s easy to be satisfied when things go well. And then there is...

It’s writing competition time at the moment. I have a lot of work before judges. Work I felt pleased with. As good as anything I’ve written. But nothing is winning. Nothing is making short lists. Results for the last tender I helped write – back when I was an employee – were poor. Disastrous. And it makes you ask why? What changed?

How could I have won those awards? Been published those times? Helped win so many tenders? Received praise for my work? How did that happen? And why doesn’t it continue?

How do you bounce back? Because not every week will be great. How much harder it is to keep hitting the keys after bad news. And things do go bad. We experience loss. We miss out. We fail. They say the secret is to keep writing. Jump back on the horse – or to use a ‘Wintonism’ – the surfboard.  I guess we ride the waves, enjoy the tube rides when they come and duck our heads when we are wiped out.

OK, I’ve got a keyboard to wax....

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