Changing your Course

Back in my carpool driving days, I discovered that if I arrived early for afternoon pickup, I’d get a close up spot in line, I’d go for a run, then the kids would pop out and we’d be off. I began running in the neighborhood behind the school for mere convenience. It appeared to be low income housing with broken down chain link fences in some front yards and lots of guard dogs chained to trees in the other yards. Scary dogs, I might add. I soon discovered that not all those dogs were chained. I ran past a house one day, with a pit bull-looking mutt lounging in the front yard that jumped up barking at me and ran towards me, chasing me down the street. I tore off at high speed, as if I thought I could outrun this four legged creature. After a couple houses, he turned around and ran home. Thankfully.

I ran in this neighborhood several more times. Thinking surely, this dog wasn’t out there every day. Well, he usually was and so were many of his friends at various houses. But, it just worked well for me to get my run in during carpool. One afternoon I heard barking from a yard as I passed by. That stinkin’ dog took off after me and actually nipped my heels. I yelled at the dog, and picked up my heels and swore I was done running in this ‘hood.

That weekend I attended a gathering with friends. One of my friends there happened to be the mayor of this town. I asked her as politely as I could if they had leash laws in that town and explained my terrifying dog chases and nipping. She told me if I thought that was bad I should hear her story. She lives further out of town and when she was running one day, she found herself face to face with a Billy goat charging towards her ready to gore her with his horns. She did the only logical thing she could think of and grabbed him by the horns. He did the only thing that Billy goats do when they are grabbed by the horns – He stood up and began projectile urinating as she dodged the stream coming towards her.

I laughed and agreed a few nipping dogs weren’t as bad. Then she suggested I run on the running trails at the park across the street from the school.  Umm. There’s a park there? I found it on my next carpool day and ran safely on the jogging trail without fear of nipping dogs or charging Billy goats.

All that to say, if you’ve hit a wall with writing, if things aren’t falling into place as they once were, maybe it’s time to change your course. Are you feeling the nipping at your heels to change direction? Are contracts not coming your way? Are you hitting a wall? There’s no leash law keeping you restrained to your genre. Is there a way you can change your course, even for a little while? If you write children’s books, maybe try an article and submit to children’s magazine publications, write devotionals, try your hand at writing that novel that’s been lurking in your mind. How about greeting cards, a blog, an article for your local newspaper. We writers tend to stick within our genre but it’s perfectly fine to explore other genres. Try different paths, look for new horizons, discover new worlds of writing. But if you come face to face with a charging Billy goat on your adventures maybe avoid grabbing him by the horns…