On This Day 01-01-2008

On this chosen day, Writer Woman begins the New Year. She spent New Year’s Eve forcing herself to stay awake and wait for 12:00 midnight. Now this isn’t a real problem for most, but Writer Woman has trained herself to rise early before anyone else in the house and write. Her body begins to shut down at 9:30 pm and by 10:00 pm, she becomes a person no one wants to be around. But Hubby was insistent that the family go to the fireworks at midnight. He chose to ignore all the glares Writer Woman shot in his direction.

After Writer Woman doses off and on for over an hour, Hubby gathers the family and herds them to the car. The air is frigid and all Writer Woman can think of is sleeping in her bed under quilts. This is how she wants to ring in The New Year. She imagines next year putting her foot down and spending New Year’s Eve taking a hot bath and reading herself to sleep. And then a horrible thought enters her head: her mother always said whatever a person is doing on New Year’s Eve; they will do the rest of the year.

As Hubby backs the car into a parking spot, Writer Woman wonders if this means she will spend the year staying up late to please Hubby. No way! She puts this old wives tale away in the same place as you must go out the same door you entered, not another door. At midnight the sky was ablaze with all colors, glittering and twinkling. Writer Woman did not want to admit how wonderful Hubby’s idea was. He might want to do it again next year. He might get the idea to push her to do more things outside of her box.

It’s no different when Writer Woman has received a really good critique on a story. Maybe the review points out a glaring problem that she would never want out in the public, but still there is something about not being perfect, something about another person finding the imperfection that makes her crazy. She knows it’s right on the money, but she wants to hate the messenger. Not for long of course because every writer knows that good critiques are the tree of life in her work. So, after giving some thought to the review, Writer Woman always has to make herself say thank you, but boy does she hate it when she isn’t perfect.

Perfection is the poison of art. All great writers had their editors. Period. So, today on this first day of the year, write without perfection perched on your shoulder. Admit when you’re having a good time, even if you stepped out of your box.

Happy New Year.