Day 105: Simple and Complex

Write briefly about on thing in your life that is simple and one thing that is complex.

So many times, the things of the world we love the most are both very simple and very complex.  I can give many examples of this.  My marriage.  So many things are simple, but get very complex.  I think 99.9% of relationships are a combination of simple and complex.  Today though, I would like to talk about writing. 

I simply must write.  Since I was little, I told myself stories.  Being an only child for nine years, my imagination was my best friend.  As I grew older and learned to write, the activity came naturally to me, this putting words on paper.  I loved my English classes.  No matter the assignment, I always had something to say.  As for stories, again, any topic I could twist and turn was a delight.  Simple.  To this day, within moments, I can conjure up an idea for a blog post or story.  Once a fellow writer listened to an idea that came to me the night before.  “You need to write that down before you forget it,” she advised.  “Are you kidding,” I exclaimed, “I hope I forget it.  I have ten other ideas on my list already.”  Yes, writing is simple for me.

In other ways, writing is so complex I want to scream.  Sure, I loved writing for English class, but teacher’s didn’t like my style nor my struggle with all the rules.  I became discouraged so many times with a C.  I loved the teachers who gave multiple grades.  I would get A’s for content/ideas and C’s for the other stuff: grammar, punctuation, and spelling.  The rules never came natural for me.  Hell, they still don’t!  I have grown a lot since my early days, but writing is still complex.  Now that I write everyday, I face the complexity of thirty-nine plus characters in my first fantasy series.  The battle sequences keep me constantly nervous that I am writing them incorrectly.  With my fifth book, the last in the series, I am battling writers block because I am so worried I will end it wrong by forgetting a character or not making the ending satisfying for my readers.  And don’t even get me started with all the non writing stuff I have to do: formatting, uploading, book covers, marketing, web-sites, and the list goes on.  I am exhausted just thinking about it all because of the complexity.

Why do I write for publishing when it is so complex?  For the same reason I stay married to my husband. I love both.  All things worth fighting for are simple and complex.  I will say that of late I have been doubting my writing.  Four books into this gig and I am not even treading water in the finance department.  Luckily, my dear husband, family, and friends cheer me on.  In fact, my husband will be reading the first 2/3rds of the current novel to guide me.  He is my first reader.  Also, I couldn’t stop writing now if I wanted to.  I might not get all the other things done, but I will write.