The Everything Else

Post for reference: https://at.tumblr.com/originalbydondria/i-dont-struggle-to-create-i-struggle-to-sustain/38nugg5jurh0

Okay so…Earlier in my life and randomly but less often even now, I would spend so much time trying to find some kind of information or story or explanation, some kind of HELP to figure out how the entire hell to be a “writer.”

What do you do? How do you publish – self or traditional? How does any of this shit work?

And gate after gate of vague but unhelpful things and posts of words with little substance ending in links for 100s of dollars worth of so called information for $99.99 🙄 to get those questions answered – I came up empty. Now, I don’t really have a problem with people charging for their expertise but I wish people would just be real about it upfront. And I wish that people would admit or learn to see 🙄 the incredible and supportive ass levels of privilege that they have so they can whole heartedly focus on just writing and figure out how to make that work OR be completely okay when and if it doesn’t.

Lowkey, this post isn’t all about that because good for them.

The “everything else” is heavy when you don’t have or, as follower count and interaction will show here (wherever I post this), lack the ability to do something “successfully” or consistently. The “everything else” are the bricks in the writer’s block when you don’t have privileges that create space or destroy the wall so truly, the hardest thing to do, is write.

For the “same 24 hrs” arguers – that is bullshit. When you work 45, get paid for 40, have to spend up to 10 in commute, and HOPE you can rack up 40 to sleep which might not be the case because things and people and situations need to be taken care of by you, with little to no assistance and heaven forbid you take any time to rest or heal or address YOURSELF so you can maximize your time on some other day or week or month so you are healthy enough to do so.

The “everything else” is trying to figure out how to navigate a world where the tiny pockets where you might fit and thrive are hard to find. Where these places have to be reached, found, unearthed, while also having to deal with a lot of spaces and circumstances that DON’T fit or help, that are big and ever present like a mountain with no pass.

The “everything else” can be it’s own kind of gate long before you get to the gatekeepers and I just WISH someone would acknowledge that. Pre social media, we saw it all the time. Super talented folks that MAYBE got a second or two to show their talent but their zip code, their income, their “everything else” keeps them from really pursuing that heart dream, that purpose OR makes the pursuit 100s of times more difficult than it needs to be, in some respects. And even with social media, we see how the gatekeeping offline has not only made it online but found new ways to hold the gate without a single person having to really look anyone in the eye and say, NO. Shout out to the algorithm. But because this is the new shiny beacon of MAYBE, of possibility, the flood was inevitable. The void has gotten deeper. And then the “everything else” becomes about fighting forces and noise that has nothing to do with you or your talent but with yet another system.

And if you lack the ability to navigate those barriers, to make mad noise in the void and be heard (because me!), then wtt are you supposed to do? End the call because the void is too deep? Cut off the purpose because the gate of “everything else” is too high? Nope.

So I bitch and moan. But I clear out the shit so I can work things out. The “everything else” is heavy but so is a bag of weeds once you clear the field.

D. Ondria

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