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The writing season
Some curmudgeonly type once noted, “Youth is wasted on the young” (OK, it was George Bernard Shaw).
To that, I would respond with a quote from an even more prestigious source, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 3.1 and um … The Byrds, I think).
We who have somehow wandered into middle age can envy the young, and think about what might have been, and what we would do differently if someone happened by with a magic wand and made us 16 again. Anything? Everything?
At the same time, when you reach the business side of 40, it’s likely that you have a varied set of experiences and knowledge that helps you in all your endeavors and drives you to choose certain actions over others. Whatever you’re doing, it might be precisely the right time in your life to be doing it.
That thought came to me after I met with the Young Writers of Western Loudoun last Saturday. The YWWL is a fantastic group of teenagers who meet monthly at the Purcellville Library to talk about writing, learn about opportunities to be published, critique each others’ work and hear from older writers about their experiences. Their adult adviser is Bobbi Carducci, a Round Hill-based professional writer.
I came to speak to the group, not as an author with any published books or with the whole writing business figured out, but as a fellow traveler on the road all writers find themselves upon.
Some come upon the road early in life, some much later. Some – a precious few – trip down quickly, with few obstacles and meet with great success. But most labor down the road, sometimes retracing steps, sometimes sitting down out of sheer frustration.
I spoke to the group that morning about the graphic novel my brother and I have finished, and the next one in the works. I talked a little about the paranormal novel I’ve been working on for some years and the various challenges involved with a book-length writing project. Together, we discussed some of their thoughts about what they like to write and why.
Sitting there, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the girls (yes, all girls – at least for that day) and by the obvious devotion to writing already there.
Here these girls are – most between 15 and 17 years old – and they already think and behave like writers. They write whenever they have the opportunity, not when someone goads them to. They look at books, movies and TV not just as entertainment, but with an eye toward story structure and character development. They dole out criticism of their peers’ work constructively, and accept appraisals of their own work with good humor and a willingness to listen and learn.
A large part of me wished there had been such a group when I was growing up. I might have joined … or maybe not. I have always loved to write, but I had interests in many other areas, too.
I did eventually get my degree in journalism, but used it in a very “jack of all trades” manner, working as magazine copy editor (with photog duties), a public relations manager for a non-profit, and a marketing communications type at a large corporation.
Even as a “stay at home” mom (note huge, ironic quotation marks), I kept my hand in with the PTA as the go-to gal for newsletters and other written material.
Oddly enough, I didn’t feel the unrelenting pull to write fiction until after I turned 40. I don’t know what flipped the switch. I do know that when my mother passed away in 2004, I was reminded, in an all-too-vivid manner, that life is short, and that if there is something you want to do, you should take that first step toward it.
I also started feeling the pull to take my writing in a different direction. To tell stories no one else had ever told … to create.
The point is: I had to be ready to take that step. And for me, I guess it had to wait until later in my life.
So, I am wowed (and maybe a little envious) that the writing season has come so early for the YWWL members.
But I do like to think my own time has come.
More information about YWWL is available at www.communityvoicemedia.com/ywwl.html
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