Wednesday, January 26, 2011

An Apology, Excuse, and Explanation

First off I want to apologize for not being very visible around the blogosphere as of late. But -- I can explain. Really, I can.

First off, I made it through finals back in December. I thought I would have a lot of time to blog and relax during the holiday break. Wrong. Because then I had to get my tree up and get my house ready for family to come and finish all of the last minute shopping and so on and so forth. I kept thinking that after Christmas I would have a little time before school started back up again. But, dear readers I got sick. I had a bad sinus infection and just felt like crap pretty much that entire week.

Then it was back to school. I am now officially done with all of my generals and 100% of my courses are devoted to my majors: Music and English. And don't be one of those people -- the ones that roll their eyes when I say "music". I don't know why people think music is easy. It's not. But that's an entirely a different post, of which I will indulge you at some point in the near future.

Anyway -- this semester I am taking four classes. I have "Intro to Writing Fiction", "Music Theory II", "Musicianship/Sight Singing & Ear-training", and "Private Piano Instruction". Mon-Thurs I leave straight from work around 5pm and head to campus for classes that start at 5:30pm. I am done by 8pm each night. And then I head home for about 2-3 hours of homework a night. On Fridays I take a long lunch hour for one class I have and then at some point throughout the weekend I try to catch up or tackle any homework or major writing assignments that I haven't gotten to.

On top of that, I have family stuff and church obligations as well. Man, no wonder I am tired! So, dear readers, don't take it personally if I haven't stopped by lately. I promise, I will be back to catch up.

First, I have to figure out when to take down the Christmas tree. Yes...it's still up. Yes, I know... don't say it.

Recently I happened to mention to someone that I needed to work on some blog posts. Her reply was a simple "Why don't you just stop blogging? Wouldn't that be easier?" ~GASP!~ Surely, she jests, right?

Some people blog to keep family members across the miles informed of their goings on. Others blog for self-therapy. Some use it as a journal, while others view it as purely entertaining. I agree. I do find the benefits of all of the aforementioned reasons. But mainly, I blog because I am a writer.

I read an article about a year ago that talked about the labels we give ourselves. Do we call ourselves a musician or someone who plays an instrument? Do we consider ourselves a crafter or do we say we just like crafts? The article went on to say that the way we label ourselves often times has a direct correlation to how successful we are in that particular area. I decided right then and there I was going to stop saying "someday I hope to be a writer" and instead say, "I am a writer."

It doesn't matter that I haven't actually been paid for anything yet. It doesn't matter that I haven't been selected by a publishing house (I want to avoid self-publishing if possible). What matters is that I write. Just like any skill that requires hours of practice to become good, the same is true with writing. If you ask a virtuoso how many hours a day she spends practicing her violin, she will say somewhere between 4 and 10 hours a day.

So, you see, this isn't "just blogging". It's how I "practice". It's how I hone my skill. And reading blogs helps me to gain perspective, learn techniques and pick up on some other creative ideas.

While I may have had to cut back on the amount of posts I have ready to publish or the amount of blogs I can visit on any given day, I can't see myself forsaking the writing any time in the near future.

That being said - I am off to my writing class! My one true hope is that when I walk in, my instructor will have chosen to wear a bra. I am sort of getting tired of seeing her girls grazing the top of her belt. Not a pretty look.

Till next time my faithful readers.

XOXO
Emma

4 comments:

Susie said...

You sure are busy!

Ruthykins said...

thanks for that word picture there at the end. now i can't stop wondering what the rest of your professor looks like.

KiennaP said...

Hang in there! :)

The Blonde Duck said...

Kudos to you. It's so hard to have the confidence to say we're whatever we are, even if we don't feel like we can say we're writers without a pub. house backing us.