The Job of Dreaming

Melissa at Making Things Up recently linked to a really great essay, particularly for writers, from The Washington Post. Author Ann Patchett talks about the importance of treating writing as a job. She proposes taking the first 32 days of the year, and creating a real work day from which to write. And her advice makes plenty of sense.

While I can’t spend a whole “work day” writing, I did take steps back in January to make writing more a part of an actual "work day" for me: When the baby was ten months old, I hired a baby-sitter for four to six hours a week. On the occasional weekend day, I’d take my laptop on a date to a place with free wireless internet and write my butt off.

But Patchett has two things that I lack: success and legitimacy. She is an accomplished writer, with five novels under her belt. Writing a novel, I’m sure, is incredibly difficult for anyone. But if you’ve had five published in the past, I’m sure sitting down to carve out time to write the next one is not nearly as daunting as it is for a person who has never published a book before. The hardest thing for me about writing, is often not the actual task of writing. It is the knowledge that what I write might not ever see the light of day. The hardest part, is legitimizing the time that writing takes away from my family or household chores, when the time I spend writing often swiftly ends in rejection.

So, here’s my variation on Patchett’s New Year’s Resolution.

Make Your Dream, Your Job.

Do what you need to do to raise your children, earn money to support yourself, and take care of the house. But then do what you need to do to make your dream happen. Carve whatever time you have or don’t have, out of your day. Stay up too late. Get up too early. Do what you love, whether or not your dream will ever lead to success or recognition or legitimacy. Make your dream a part of your daily work day, whatever that entails. Don’t think of your day as complete until you’ve spent at least a few minutes cultivating and nourishing that dream every single day.

Don't spend 2010 pretending to be that cheesy Disney princess who wishes upon a star for a prince charming to make her dreams come true.

Instead, you be the person who makes your dreams come true.

Happy New Year, everyone!

(A version of this post is at my personal blog, She Started It.)