Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Swapping out the Good for the Better

Yeah, I know it's been forever since I posted here.  You can send me some strongly worded comments if you'd like, about my complete lack of blogging consistency and how I shouldn't be such a doofus about posting here.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.

*hums the Jeopardy theme song*

Finished?  Okay, now on to the real reason I posted this.  Because I want to hear with the rest of you think about something other than my #blogfail.

A few Sundays ago at church, the discussion turned to how sometimes we might not have to choose between good and bad, but good and another good.  And how sometimes we may need to choose the better good over another good.  And how one person's decision may be right for them, but completely wrong for someone else.

Then we were asked to contemplate the idea of finding one good thing in our lives that we could maybe swap out for a better good.

I feel like I have been doing a lot of this in my personal life lately.  For example, I used to have an agent (the good) and a book on submission (another good), but I made the hard decision to set my writing career aside temporarily and part with my agent in order to spend more time focusing on my health and my family (the better good).  Two weeks and three days ago--not that I'm keeping track or anything--I decided to set aside sugary sweets (ooh, that stuff is GOOOD) for something better (a healthier lifestyle).

But I've been thinking about how this could apply to the writing life, too.  And now that I've picked up the pen again, so to speak, I realized that I need to swap out the good for the better in this part of my life, too.

I still haven't figured out what good I need to replace with a better.  I'm hoping it will come to me soon.  It may have to wait until after I get over my current sugar withdrawal, though, but I'm already feeling a little less jittery and a little more zen-like.  So that's good...er, better. 

While I wait, though, I'd love to be inspired by stories from the rest of you.  Do you have a good you've replaced with a better in your writing?  It could be something as simple as replacing a good character with a better one, or something more cosmic like swapping out a good writing habit for a better one.  Or is there a better you've been thinking about introducing into your writing life?  Please share it all with me!