So here we are yet again. Summer is over. Labor Day has passed. And we’re STILL in the clutches of this coronavirus pandemic with no real end in sight. I know people are looking for anything they can glom onto for hope. And I understand get. Believe me, I get it. Unfortunately, I possess a medical background and understand the nature of viral outbreaks and disease transmission. Trust me when I say, this won’t be over by Election Day. Or Thanksgiving.
Or Christmas.
Coronavirus is here to stay. Not at global pandemic levels, to be sure. But let’s be real here. A vaccine will immunize enough of us to attain herd immunity levels, but it will not eradicate the virus. The polio vaccine has been around since the 1950s. People still get polio. The measles vaccine has also been around for decades. People still get measles. Same with influenza, pneumonia, SARS, ebola… you get the gist.
So temper your expectations, folks. It’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint.
So as artists, how do we keep going? How do we not become disappointed, disillusioned, hopeless? How do we not simply throw our hands up and cry to heaven, “What’s the point”?
Each artist must look within themselves for that answer. Do not look to the outside world for your inspiration. True motivation always comes from within. It may be because you lose yourself in your art. It may be because you forget about the worries of the day.
Speaking only for myself, my mental machinations simply won’t let me quit. In order to understand that, you have to understand my life experiences. I grew up in small-town Texas in the 60s and 70s. I had a demanding father and a strict mother. Even as a small child, they never allowed me to quit anything once I started. If I tried something and failed, that might be okay; I was never allowed to quit. “No son of mine is going to grow up to be a quitter!”. I can still hear my old man say that, and he died in 2012.
I played on my school’s football team from 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school. I can still hear my coaches screaming, ” Come on! Come on! Don’t quit until you hear the whistle! Keep those legs moving! Churn, churn, churn! Losers quit, and we’re not losers!”
We won a lot of games.
See a pattern forming here?
In the military, everything took on a more serious tone. It wasn’t family pride or a football game at stake; it was human lives. You never quit as long as you had breath left in your body. Period. As a Fleet Marine Force Navy Corpsman, it didn’t matter if I lived or died. What mattered was that my Marines survived, that I never let my Marines down. If one of my guys died, it wasn’t going to be because I gave up.
In combat, if you quit – EVER – not only do you get yourself killed, you likely also get the people around you killed. And that is a cardinal sin.
Well, my military days are long behind me, just like those football games and living in my parents’ house. But those lessons are ingrained in my DNA now. So is that level of intensity. Never give up. Find a way to push through. Get those legs under you, and churn churn churn. Chug chug chug. Never stop.
“Some people wait for inspiration. The rest of us get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
I take this quote to heart. I’ve often spoken my mantra that writers… write. Every day. And I practice what I preach. Sometimes it’s fun, easy, fulfilling, almost a spiritual experience. Other days it’s a chore, a slog, akin to ice skating uphill or swimming through mud. Some days I look forward to it; some days I dread it. Sometimes I get a lot done; sometimes very little. Sometimes I’m creating new content, other times I’m working on the business end of things.
But I spend significant time on it every day, even the days when I don’t feel like it. Even when I lack inspiration.
Because that’s how you finish a work of art. That’s how you finish a novel, a short story, a screenplay, a painting, short film, feature film, a sculpture, a mural — whatever your own artistic outlet happens to be.
I write every day because I’m a writer. It’s what I do. And I can’t NOT do it.
THIS HORRORWRITER'S LIFE 