Blog 3 aka Yappy Dog Waves and Me by Danielle Swanson

"Jefferson answered, 'My dear, we all throw water at the ocean. Some of us think it is very serious business,'"(McClure 142).

I love literature. I read all the time, every day. I read to my children. I make my students read, and I whine when they don't. But somehow, despite my love of literature, writing my own book seems to take a backseat to everything. Somehow, my writing ranks lower on the totem pole than all of the other daily stuff I have to do including laundry, toilet scrubbing and grocery shopping. I feel like I need one of those bumper stickers for my car that says, "I'd rather be writing."
I don't know that my writing has ever been hit by one big wave; I'm not even sure I've ever capsized. Instead, little yappy dog waves continously nip on my writing, causing me to have a series of starts and stops that sometimes leave me feeling like I'm pushing against an undefeatable current. I'll be going along steady when something will happen to make me stop. It doesn't have to be something big, but in the past, new jobs, too much homework, or a busy football season have all come between me and my writing.
Never have I completely stopped writing; however, there have been times where writing what I wanted seemed like a very silly idea. "Who," I would wonder, "wants to read this?" The summer after my husband left and I quit my job, I wrote 180 pages. When I reread it, I decided it was all crap. There were gaping plot holes, and the characters all seemed flat. I trashed it and decided to start something new. But I didn't stop writing.
When I was working at the paper, I was writing everyday. As much as I love writing fiction, it's hard to come home after working forty hours a week writing stories and pull out the keyboard to start typing. It's even harder with kids who want to see their mother every now and then. Instead, I created stories in my head and hoped someday I would have the time to pen them.
As a student, I have been forced to make that time, to overcome the waves. Sometimes I still feel like I am rowing in an opposing current, but every once in a while, I will catch the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and drift just a bit closer to my destination. I love these moments. They are the times I know that I am not just throwing water at the ocean but actually doing some serious business.