Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Hello! Remember me? I don’t blame you if you’ve forgotten me; it’s been more than a year since my previous post. I decided last March to take an extended hiatus from my online platforms with the intention of staying logged out until I made significant headway on my writing goals, the most ambitious of those being to secure representation for my work. You might rightfully assume I’ve achieved those goals, given that I’m here typing out this post.

I have not.

I’d like to say my lack of accomplishment wasn’t for lack of trying. That would be a bit of a white lie. An off-white lie. Beige, perhaps. Okay, dark brown, then. The truth is I’d fallen out of the swing of consistent authoring duties. In addition to periodic malingering, I took a month-long break from writing activities at the end of summer. That break somehow turned into a season that then turned into two, and now, here we are.

So what was I doing instead all that time? Well, I learned how to swing—literally.

My husband and I enrolled in dance classes last May in preparation for his cousin’s August wedding. We wanted to learn a few moves so we didn’t feel out-of-place on the dance floor. The problem is that we learned just enough to be completely frustrated with our limitations by the time the wedding rolled around.

We learned the basics of swing, cha-cha, and more, but our moves at the reception were awkward, amateur, and rote. And, despite our instructor’s best efforts, we didn’t understand how to implement those dances on a crowded floor. Let’s just say there was a lot of fudging and abrupt stops to avoid collisions.

After the wedding, we weighed the cost of continuing lessons against our performance and considered calling our rudimentary tango moves “good enough.”  But amidst the frustration (and more than a few snippy spousal episodes), something else had taken hold–determination.

We were determined to get the dance moves right. We wanted to be good at this. At the wedding, we’d expected too much of ourselves from the lessons we’d had up to that point. Once we shifted our focus to polishing what we’d already learned, and slowly adding to that base as we were ready, we began to have fun with it. It was less “why can’t we do that?” and more “here’s how we eventually get to do that.”

We now push furniture against the living room walls to practice in the evenings. We stop and dance in the middle of the home improvement store to work out a swing step we’re discussing. And this past weekend, we performed our first full two-minute dance routine (choreographed by our awesome instructor, Marcie) for a spring showcase.

That’s not to say it’s all smooth sailing. We still need to work on maneuvering through a crowded dance floor, and our catalog of moves remains modest compared to what we see more advanced students do. But we know we’ll get there because we are fully into the swing of swing!

Now let’s circle this post back to writing with a confession. With the joyful distraction of dance, I haven’t stressed about my lack of authorly activities these past six-plus months. Sure, the occasional “I should be working on my books” thought drifted through my head, but a session of hustle or tango usually took care of that. I’ve been content not doing it. Not happy, mind you, but content.

But I’m still a writer at heart and no amount of foxtrotting will change that. I’ve missed working on my books. As with dancing, storytelling is something I profoundly enjoy despite the frustrations that come with it.

My problem this past year was that I expected too much of myself, and it was a cyclical issue. The less I achieved, the more unsatisfied I became with my flagging writing career, which bombed my motivation to spend more time on it, which meant I wasn’t getting anywhere. As a result, I let my love of storytelling fall to the wayside.

It’s now time I get back into the swing of writing things. I’m taking a cue from my dance lessons by focusing less on what I haven’t yet achieved and more on improving and building on what I have, and finding joy in that process.

Rather than focus on the stagnation of this past year, I’m returning to my writing desk with determination. As with the cha-cha and swing, I know I’ll achieve what I want if I focus less on the “why don’t I have that?” and more on “here’s how I eventually get to have that.”

Minor note: getting back into the swing of authoring doesn’t include returning to my online platforms at this time. I still feel a need to center my writing efforts on my books. It may be another year before I post again, but know that when I do return, it will be with positive news. And maybe another fully polished dance routine.

Minor note, part two: you may notice my website has undergone another makeover. My previous site template was retired in 2023, making updated increasingly untenable. I finally set aside time to update it. Looks, good, right?

Happy writing, dancing, gardening, gaming, or whatever it is that gives you joy!