Is your work a journey, a career progression, or both?

Author Pat Bertram ("A Spark of Heavenly Fire") and I are discussing the writer's journey on her blog. Or maybe the word "journey" is just another word for "career." However you see it, I invite you to stop by and compare notes and tell us how you have changed over the years as you wrote.

http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/pat-bertram-and-malcolm-r-campbell-discuss-the-writers-journey

Malcolm

Malcolm,
enjoyed reading the writer's journey.

I always enjoy reading about the hero's journey. I like your concept of the writer as hero. We are all heroes, really, and our individual quests, parts of an epic we have yet to completely discover.

Good work, Malcolm.

Ann

Careful Abe, you don't want that misconstrued as a review!

Very nice, Malcolm. There is a lot of meaning in the interview and the blog.

Thanks for stopping by the discussion, everyone.

Malcolm

Marie,

That was beautiful. It made me think about how we each have individual journeys, unique to each of us, but when we write it is their uniqueness as well as the universals the reader can relate to that draws the reader into the writing.

My father is the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. Everyone else had a few conditions. When I went to college, he made me promise not to just go one year and quit when I found a husband. If I went for a year I had to go on for the degree. I never broke promises to my father. I knew they were out of love for me.

When he was going to die, I thought I would lose that unconditional love. I didn't and was amazed it was still there. One time I was on a trip and staying in a hotel room with my two daughters and husband. During the night I saw my father's image and I started laughing uncontrollably. I went in the bathroom trying not to disturb my family, but the laughter only echoed off the tiles. Everyone thought I had gone "round the bend." It was only later I realized it was my father's birthday and took the message to heart, "Don't forget to laugh. Don't take life as seriously as I did."

Very beautiful story, Marie. I am still journeying. I have always been a person who has enjoyed the scenery on a detour.

Carol

You had a wise and wonderful father, Marie. He taught you well and you were inteligent enough to learn his lessons. Beyond that, you are tough in the finest sense of the word. Gentle, too, and it would be hard to find a better combination than tough and gentle. Your journey hasn't been easy and that is fortunate because the things that come easy seldom build character. I'm glad I have come to know you even if it is only in cyberspace. Your story was beautifully written. You are a very special person.

To answer Malcolm's question, whatever I do or have done has been a career progression. Now it has reached the point of being a relaxed journey without pressure or goals.

Marie,

No wonder I enjoy you writing, both prose and poetry, as much as I do. Our journeys have several similarities.

Ann

Ann,

Just what I was trying to say. I like both of you a lot, and you both are fantastic writers.

Carol

Dick will probably take you up on it. He's probably wondering about that soft slightly southern voice. I bet the accent is probably Iowan. My grandfather had a slightly southern twang being from "Ioway."

Carol

Marie, what touching, honest and vulnerable words you have written. I believe your Dad has been watching your journey unfold and I bet he's not surprised one bit by your talent or your loving heart.

I'm about to leave to attend a memorial service for a friend and I am so glad I read this before leaving. Honoring a life lived is an amazing thing.

Thank you for sharing your journey, Marie. Like Dick, when I was young, I used words like "career," but now the idea of a journey sounds better. Your journey required a lot of grit, and that's what ends up producing the pearls.

Malcolm