A Positive Farewell

This will be my last post at The Irrepressible Writer for awhile or forever, although it won’t be my last commentary on creating and maintaining resilience for the writer’s journey.

My tri-yearly column continues at Illinois-SCBWI’s The Prairie Wind and I’ll happily guest post, put my two cents into conversations, and remain available for consultation via email, phone and in person.

My decision to take a long hiatus or permanent separation from The Irrepressible Writer blog has to do with the very positive need, yearning really, to allow all of my creative energies focus on my current work in progress, as well as on personal essays I’ve set aside for several years.

It’s not a matter of time, nor of physical energy or life-related obstacles. It’s more of a longing to let myself soak, even sink completely, into my other writing. E.L. Konigsberg, via Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler (FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER) describes the point in time for this goodbye best:

“No, I don’t agree with [the need to learn one new thing every day]. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. but you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them.”

The time feels right, since I’ve provided a volume of practical and philosophical suggestions based on theory and life, for any writer who struggles with staying resilient and either needs reminders, brush-up-on-optimism tips, or a full course in how to discover, build and maintain resilience. At the end of this post, I offer a step-by-step self-directed “workshop” of links for you, or for future readers.

I leave the blog feeling positive, and positively, about the ability of learned and practiced optimism (optimism by choice, rather than by nature) to change a life, and certainly to decrease the time and energy (and therefore brain capacity) spent in gratuitous negativity.

As writers we face an onslaught of challenges. If you weren’t born with ready-made resilience, you can work hard to create it. When you challenge your mind to think differently, your feelings follow. With practice, with daily choices to learn an optimistic explanatory style instead of pessimistic, you’ll feel increasingly natural about it all. You’ll notice that in response to the vicissitudes of a writer’s life, your skin feels, not tough, but elastic.

Taking time out to let things be…and wishing you well.                        

Self-Directed Resilience Workshop:

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/11/why-jump-in-to-optimism-when-youre-so-familiar-with-despair/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/13/youve-got-style-which-one-will-it-be/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/10/wherever-you-are-thats-where-youll-start/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/12/your-very-first-step-no-even-before-that-one/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/04/06/feelings-are-transient-the-good-news-and-the-bad/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/09/how-to-dispute-pessimistic-thinking/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/03/07/tip-for-disputing-negative-thoughts/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/01/26/when-youre-being-negative-what-if-youre-wrong/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/12/10/writers-unblock-tips-catching-your-negativity-spiral/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/12/07/writers-unblock-tips-when-youre-overwhelmed/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2009/11/19/three-things-you-need-to-become-a-more-resilient-writer/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/09/23/create-resilience-positive-emotions-by-choice/

The Writer’s Journey:

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/09/08/resilient-you-open-to-pain/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/08/31/michelangelos-advice/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/07/20/journey-to-positivity/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/07/13/when-should-i-quit/

http://theirrepressiblewriter.com/2010/09/14/rabbi-susyas-advice/