Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Lies Writers Tell... To Other Writers (Part Five -- It Shouldn't Be Work (Or "Waiting for Your Muse")) (an IWM post)

Those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time will know that my daughter plays the accordion.
In many ways, she has a love/hate relationship with it. She loves playing. She loves performing even though she doesn't like to admit that. She doesn't want to give it up. However, she hates practicing. She hates getting new, more difficult songs. She hates the work of it.

Now, let's go back to the beginning:
Learning to play the accordion was her idea. It would never have occurred to us to suggest to any of our kids that they ought to learn to play the accordion. I mean, who does that, right? But my daughter decided that she wanted to learn to play it. Of course, that meant that she had to learn to play it and that's work. Playing the accordion is not just picking one up and jamming it in and out.

At first, for the first year or so, she hated going to lessons. She also hated practicing, but the real issue was that she hated going to lessons. She wanted to play the accordion, but she wanted to be able to do it without putting any work into it. [How many of you know that feel?] Eventually, she got over hating her lessons and dislikes when she has to miss them. She still hates practicing. Well, not always, I suppose, but there are days when it's a huge ordeal to get her to sit down and put in the half hour. It's work.

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And, once again, here's the part where you have to hop over to Indie Writers Monthly to find out the rest. Of course, I encourage you to do that.

9 comments:

  1. Yeah. Thing is, I've noticed that things are a lot less work the more we practice them.

    It's all about getting to a specific point in the learning curve.

    Writing's a lot like that too.

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  2. Yeah. Thing is, I've noticed that things are a lot less work the more we practice them.

    It's all about getting to a specific point in the learning curve.

    Writing's a lot like that too.

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  3. Work is tough, but the satisfaction is worth it. I've never hated or dreaded writing, so I suppose I'm blessed in that way.

    But yes, that is a terrible lie. Waiting for inspiration usually results in not writing anything.

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  4. Great points in your article about just doing the work. And accordion can be awesome. I love Loreena McKennitt's music.

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  5. Misha: That's true. Some things will become easier but, hopefully, we're going on to new hard things. That's the way to keep growing.

    Loni: Yeah, I've lost track of the number of posts I've read where people have said, "I haven't written a single words in months; I just have no inspiration." I have no sympathy for that.

    L.G.: Accordion can be awesome. I'll have to look up Loreena.

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  6. Daughter is the same way with piano. Hates practicing. We have made clear that she can quit any time. But if she wants the lessons, she has to practice.

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  7. TAS: It can be a hard bargain with kids.

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  8. That's why I gave up piano because I hated practicing. Now I wish I hadn't, but far too late. Hubby was a great pianist as a young man (member of the Royal College of Music) he didn't mind practicing but gave it up to finish academic exams, etc. and never went back. Such a pity.

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  9. Jo: I understand that feeling. Any time I put up any resistance to doing anything when I was a kid, my mom just let me quit. I wish she had made me stick with... something.

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