Hi.. I've been lurking here and reading your journal a while, figured I'd comment on this because I did, once.
Why did you stop? I was going to college, and I got very sick and had to stop doing that. So thought I might die for about ten years, so I spent that decade doing nothing creative because I was pretty convinced that I had no life left.
What did you need to resume? What prompted your resuming? Well, I'm sure that it's different for everyone but for me, music saved me. In particular, a band called The Elected (http://www.myspace.com/theelected). I listened to their music, found it beautiful and felt like maybe life wasn't so bad. I started writing poetry, wrote a book of poetry and gave it to them. After that, I just kept on writing- short stories, poems, articles... still writing, though sometimes slowly. Working on a collection of short stories.
Did you fret about not-writing when you were not writing? Were you afraid that you had given it up for good?
I thought I was done with that part of my life and I didn't have a serious need to write anymore. But I felt like I was dead, so that's pretty much why. And yeah, I thought it was forever. Writing again felt like rebirth.
When you resumed, how long did it take you to have faith in yourself?
Faith is a shaky thing - some days I have faith in it, some days I don't. But I keep writing now, and I think that's what's important.
Hi...
Why did you stop?
I was going to college, and I got very sick and had to stop doing that. So thought I might die for about ten years, so I spent that decade doing nothing creative because I was pretty convinced that I had no life left.
What did you need to resume? What prompted your resuming?
Well, I'm sure that it's different for everyone but for me, music saved me. In particular, a band called The Elected (http://www.myspace.com/theelected). I listened to their music, found it beautiful and felt like maybe life wasn't so bad. I started writing poetry, wrote a book of poetry and gave it to them. After that, I just kept on writing- short stories, poems, articles... still writing, though sometimes slowly. Working on a collection of short stories.
Did you fret about not-writing when you were not writing? Were you afraid that you had given it up for good?
I thought I was done with that part of my life and I didn't have a serious need to write anymore. But I felt like I was dead, so that's pretty much why. And yeah, I thought it was forever. Writing again felt like rebirth.
When you resumed, how long did it take you to have faith in yourself?
Faith is a shaky thing - some days I have faith in it, some days I don't. But I keep writing now, and I think that's what's important.