Writing advice from Roseanne.

Yesterday morning, around 3:25 AM to be exact, this lovely framed poster that hangs above my head decided it was time to come crashing down. Luckily, for my head's sake at least, it did not hit me. But it did jolt me awake, and make me believe I was living in Amytville Horror for about a minute. I wasn't able to go back to sleep for a long time so I turned on the TV, flipped through a million infomercials when I saw Roseanne was on.

I grew up on Roseanne.  Loved it back then and still love it today. This episode was the series finale that always makes me cry (and yes, I got teary eyed at 4:30 something AM over it). Now if you never saw the series finale I don't feel that bad "spoiling" it for you cause if you haven't seen it yet, I doubt you ever will.

Basically the series ended with Roseanne in her basement finishing the book she had been writing about her life aka the show. A lot of things she switched in the book like did you know Mark and Becky weren't actually together?! It was really Darlene and Mark. Becky was with David, but like any good mother she always thought that was strange so she switched their lives around. Oh, and also Dan really did die when he had his heart attack which made me bawl.

Re-watching that episode, the last few minutes where Roseanne is narrating, the following passage really stuck out to me:

....In choosing life, I realized that my dreams of being a writer wouldn't just come true; I had to do the work. And as I wrote about my life, I relived it, and whatever I didn't like, I rearranged. I made a commitment to finish my story even if I had to write in the basement in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep. But the more I wrote, the more I understood myself and why I had made the choices I made, and that was the real jackpot. I learned that dreams don't work without action; I learned that no one could stop me but me. I learned that love is stronger than hate. And most important, I learned that God does exist. He and/or She is right inside you, underneath the pain, the sorrow, and the shame. I think I'll be a lot better now that this book is done.

For the past couple years I've lost a lot of things, and one of them was my drive for my dream. It's good to have that back, and that little passage above will be my push throughout this entire month as I charge through NaNoWriMo.