Friday 20 September 2013

Mad Farmers & Chocolate Pudding

Big Nose starts his walk.
So let me tell you about the Mad Farmer. Yesterday, when walking the Big Nose, we took the same path as always, but on the way up the slope in the second meadow, Big Nose got all excited. A long white leg had come through the hedge to touch him.  This long white leg was attached to a beautiful Brittany spaniel who was attached to a shouty man on a quad bike.  Mad Farmer.

Apparently Big Nose and I were on the wrong side of the field.  Rather than do a circumference of the field, we should have walked to the stile, turned and walked back.  The path isn’t marked in that way and to be honest, I didn’t consult any maps, just village advice when I started taking this walk.  In general, I’m quite open to correcting my mistakes if you’re respectful of my ignorance.

Mad Farmer began our relationship by screaming at me, soon followed by his female companion screaming also.  Someone who goes from zero to sixty in a fraction of a second, well he’s already made his mind up that I’m no good.  Worse, I couldn't see either of them through the bushes.  So I ignored them, walked up the wrong side of the field, quad bike and shouty couple on the other side of the hedge until I crossed the stile and went home.  I felt bad about their treatment of me for the rest of the day.

Big nose off the path.
I took that bad-feeling energy and wrote Mad Farmer into a scene in a humourous way, a little joke about what’s really a nasty piece of work.  That didn’t make the bad feeling go away, but it did do something productive with it.  And this morning, Mad Farmer & Co are another funny story.

Coincidentally, I’m at that point when a long term piece is being turfed out into the world.  There’s a whole lot of feelings balled up in that, but the icky one is, what happens if this doesn’t go anywhere?  What do I do next?  Is it time to give this all up?

The Butler said the most amazing thing to me.  You keep writing.  Isn’t he the perfect writer’s spouse?  Truly.  But his advice is perhaps the hardest in the world to follow.  Being a writer sometimes feels like swimming through chocolate pudding.  It’s a really big sacrifice to swim and not eat the pudding, cuz I love my chocolate.  By this I mean, the time I spend writing is time away from all the other wonders in life, with perhaps not all the gratification a lot of other jobs provide. 

I get discouraged, even with a Butler.  That discouragement more than anything else – poverty, colicky babies, a deluge of rejections coming through the mail slot – that will kill your writing.

The view
Earlier this week, I met a villager whom I’d only spoken to at a New Year’s Eve party.  She’s dog sitting and wanted to compare notes.  She knew I worked from home because I’m rather visible in my Writing Closet, but she didn’t know what I did.  I said, I’m a writer.  I saw it in her brain, the churning Do I Know You question.  That usually doesn’t turn out well.  So then I said, Not a very successful one.  I do it because it’s what I want to do.

Part of me said, what are you apologising for?  I don’t apologise for my gardening efforts or my knitting efforts or the fact my outfits never match.  But, I’m glad I said it because a really neat thing happened next.  All the muscles in the woman’s face opened up and she smiled.  She made some comment which said, that’s really wonderful that you’re doing what you want to do with your life.

It’s really wonderful and brave that you’re writing.  If this is the only sentence of this blog you remember, then keep it close.  Just that sentence.  Because it’s true. 

Long distance swimmers have people in boats to protect them from drowning, people shouting from the shore that yes indeed they will make it.  And if they get attacked by jellyfish, they get medical care.  Writers, some days all we have are Mad Farmers on the other side of the hedgerow screaming abuse.  The people on the shore tell us to get a real job.  The ones in the boats laugh at us.  When we get stung by rejections, no first aid.  Just those looks which say, you should’ve stayed out of the water.

The goal.
Think of the hardest thing you’ve ever done or had to endure.  Not something small.  The BIG one.  Think of that right now.  Think of the strength it took you to get through that.  You’re pretty remarkable, aren’t you?  You are.  That quality alone is something you should share.  And you do that most effectively through your writing.

Don’t let them stop you from writing, those Mad Farmers of the world.  Write.  Write.  Write.  And keep writing.


10 comments:

  1. That was beautiful and encouraging and exactly what I needed to read. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I hope that means you plan to keep writing. ;-)

      Delete
  2. Really enjoyed your blogpost - and the concept of swimming through chocolate pudding in particular :-) As a farmer's daughter and a stockman's wife, I can see the situation from both sides, but there is absolutely no need for such aggression. A pleasant and reasonable discussion can quickly solve any questions about safe/sensible places to walk around a field of livestock or standing crop. Unfortunately, Mad Farmer and Mrs Mad sound like the sort of folk who give the farming community a bad name. At least they provided inspiration - I also find that walking/living in the countryside (Scotland in my case) provides plenty of writing fuel :-) All power to your pen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry about MF giving farming a bad name here. He's notorious, altho this is the first time I've (sort of) met him. I grew up on a farm myself & am grateful to farmers who support us enjoying their fields. As you can see from the photos, this one is a clover field w/no livestock, but I think in future, I'll stick to a nicer farmer's land. I prefer more congenial inspiration! Thanks for the comments. Was glad to hear from someone with a shoe on both sides of the hedgerow, so to speak.

      Delete
  3. I needed this today. Thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We all need to hear this, some days. Glad this helped. Keep writing!

      Delete
    2. My mother used to turn up unannounced during the week and stay for hours. When I asked her not to do this (perhaps just during lunchtime for an hour because I have to work?) she said 'pah! Writing's not a job!' She hasn't visited since, choosing to think I just don't want her here. I gave up a pretty decent job to write with the full support of my husband and on one night out with my brotherI got a lecture about how I was 'being unrealistic and making my husband have to work twice as hard to keep us. Don't you know the tiny percentage of writers that actually make it?' I came home, a little full of brandy, had a sob and tweeted about it. At 1am I had a reply from one of my heroes, UK comedian Sarah Millican (I write comedy). She said: No one understands. Don't give up on your dream.'
      I haven't. Two months ago I got an agent for my novel and now I'm in the 'it went out into the world & I'm waiting' place. This post describes how it feels so well. I liken it to waiting for the results of a lifechanging job interview you think you did well in for months & months - not to mention working for over a year & waiting for someone to decide if and when they'll pay you for your time. And when they do, your annual salary for 2013 could turn out to be 1.5k. It's a bit rough at times, but I have to keep diving back in that chocolate pudding. I'm addicted. Thank you for this - one of the best posts I've read today #wwwblogs

      Delete
    3. I've read your blogs & I'd say, keep writing even if there's no 1.5K to compensate you, for as long as you can. The gift of humour is gold & helps the rest of us get thru the less humourous. You HAVE made it.

      Delete
  4. That was so beautifully said. I needed to hear that today. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad it helped. Have faith in yourself. As a writing tutor once said to our class, We're each part of the layers that make up our writing genre. Everyone of us are needed to make the whole. Keep writing!

      Delete