A Slice of Orange

WRITING VIRUS

by Kitty Bucholtz

I hit a wall last month. Not a writer’s block wall, a running-ahead-at-full-steam and hit-a-wall and crashed-and-burned kind of wall. It was totally unexpected and I’m still dazed, trying to figure out how it happened, how I didn’t see it coming so I could’ve prepared for it. But it was like one of those colds where you wake up healthy and well in the morning, have a sore throat at lunch, and are down for the count by dinner. Wham!

Some things in life are just unexpected and can’t be planned for. How many times have you heard that how your character responds to adversity shows who they really are? Well, character-named-Kitty-who-is-living-my-life, how are you going to respond? Who are you really?

I gave some thought to just quitting and getting a “real” job. (There is a voice in my head that is always delighted when I consider that, obviously a voice who doesn’t much like me, doesn’t believe I can make a living writing, and doesn’t give a hoot whether I know it.) But instead of making any decisions at all, I chose to give myself a week to do something else. Anything else. So I cleaned my kitchen top to bottom, took care of some errands, spent time with my husband, went shopping (something I don’t often have time to do – it was fun!), and then the week was up… and I still didn’t know what to do.

Monday my writing partners called me and literally got me out of bed. By the end of the phone call I realized I was going to survive; the worst of the virus was over. My husband and writing partners all supported me taking a couple weeks to work on a new idea I’ve been excited about. They all agreed my current book could use the perspective distance and time would bring. Everyone thinks I’ll be back in the excitement of this story by the end of the month, due in no small part to partaking in a little brainstorming in this other story I’m excited about.

Even God seemed to be encouraging me Monday. (I shouldn’t be surprised since he loves me so much, but I still usually am!) I flipped open my Bible after that phone call and almost immediately came to the verse that reminds us that God prepared in advance good works for us to do. Reading between the lines, I saw, “Don’t quit now, Kitty!”

I feel caught up in the rising tide of optimism – a strange feeling for me because I’m usually the one doing the encouraging. But already I feel better. Just writing about feeling better is making me feel better! I never did get out my resume, and I think it will still be in the drawer long after you read this. The writing life may be easy for some people, but it can be difficult for me. Still, through all the ups and downs, writing viruses and all, I can’t help but believe it’s worth it.

Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.