Passion Fruit Cupcakes & Writing

Image from Our Best Holiday

Passion Fruit Cupcakes: Why Write?

I'll admit I've never tried a passion fruit cupcake, but I've had the fruit before.  It is purple or yellow and filled with seeds and juice that runs down your chin when you bite into it.  It makes me think of us, as human beings.  You see their outside shell, but you have no idea what is inside of them until you get to know them.  You have no idea what their dreams are, their hurts, their struggles and triumphs, but once you get to know them, the essence of who they are spills out. 

Sometimes it can be scary to share the essence of who we are.  It's easier to keep our dreams to ourselves in case they never come true.  It's easier to put on a mask of "all is well in my life" when really inside we're struggling. 

I received feedback on the manuscript that I've been working on for about four years now.  There was a lot of good feedback, which is encouraging.  But the negative feedback is something I've received from multiple people, and I therefore know if I want this story to ever get published, I have to make the changes.  These aren't little changes.  It's like, go through and rewrite huge chunks of every chapter kind of changes.

And my first thought is, I should just give up.  I've rewritten this thing four times.  I've lost count of how many times I've revised and edited.  So I told the hubster I wasn't sure what to do with the story.  If maybe I should give up on it.  Write something else.  And he asked me a question that made me want to hide everything inside of me.

"Why do you write?"

I didn't want to go deep, where the seeds and juice were.  So I told him something along the line of I thought the story was an interesting concept and I wanted to get it down on paper.  He prodded more, not accepting that as an answer.  And I was annoyed he couldn't accept it as an answer.  Because I don't want to admit that writing is a passion.  Sharing this story is something I want to do.  I want to know how other people are effected by this story that has been in my heart and my head for years now.  I don't want to have invested all this time and energy into it and for it to not go anywhere.

It is a passion.  One that is scary to admit.  So eventually I will sit down at my computer and go chapter by chapter and make the changes.  I will revise it again.  I will edit it again.  And then I will know I have written a stronger story.  I have written something that reveals just a little bit of what is inside of me.  I have written something that is much stronger because of all these changes I am making, as I am growing as a writer.  I am learning about the craft of writing and I am learning about myself.  I will persevere, because this is a passion of mine.

Follow your passion all.  And eat a cupcake (or a dozen) along the way. :)