Pardon Me While I Attend the Revolution…
When starting a revolution, tell your wife
by Ron Estrada
One day in May of 2010, I announced to my wife that I’d started a tea party. This was shortly after I announced that I was running for precinct delegate (which doesn’t require “running” at all because they can’t give the job away). I described my sudden insertion into politics as “mid-life community non-involvement guilt.”
As you might have guessed, the writing process of my last novel, Reality Bites, came to an abrupt halt. Like many of you, I love writing. Let me rephrase that…when I stopped writing it felt like someone had removed one leg, a lung, and several major arteries from my person. Y’all know what I’m talking about. At some point, our lives went from being about God and family to being about God, family, and WIP. We lost friends. Oh, no, here comes Ron again, he’s going to tell us about how he murdered a cocktail waitress by immersing her in fish oil and throwing her naked into a basement full of kittens.
But who needs ‘em?
Politics is not a spectator sport. Once you’re in, you get signed up for everything from fundraiser menu planner to running for U.S. Senate, whichever they happen to need when you walk through the door. And because you’re guilt-ridden from years of armchair politicking, you can’t say no.
Recently, I said no.
When saving the country, inconvenience may occur
Now, don’t get me wrong. If you want your voice heard and to meet fascinating people (many of who will later die gruesome deaths between chapter 2 and the Epilogue), you can’t beat politics. These people have passion. They have energy. They have awesome stories. Stories that will end up in your manuscripts. You’ll create characters that you have to tone down from their real-life counterparts so they’ll be believable. Just try writing a scene involving Barney Frank. You can’t make up characters like that.
In the last year, I didn’t write a thing outside of my activist blogs. Okay, there’s my quarterly Women 2 Women Michigan magazine articles, but I try not to talk about that. It was embarrassing when my neighbor walked over, held the magazine to my face, and said, “Is this you?” How she got on the distribution of seven subscribers, I’ll never know.
Even George Washington redecorated during the war
I digress. As you can see, I’m tapping away again on blogs like this as well as my novels. Have I given up my citizen activism? No. Like millions of other Americans, I now realize that freedom and liberty are too important to be left in the hands of politicians. However, I now understand that I can’t do it all. Members of my tea party have shouldered much of my burden. God bless ‘em. I’ll remain a precinct delegate. I will not run for state rep or even Oxford School Board.
All writers want to lock themselves away in some seaside bungalow and create new worlds for ten hours a day while taking margarita breaks at sunset, but that’s not life. As parents, we have a duty to our children. As employees, we have a duty to our employers. As Americans, we have a duty to country. We can’t ignore them and hope someone else fills the me-shaped hole I left behind. But getting involved doesn’t take away from your writing. It will add layers of life experience to your manuscripts.
The act of writing is only part of the writing process. If you’re involved, you’re living. If you’re paying attention and making mental notes, you’re writing.
Now go grab your favorite Gadsten flag and notebook and get to work.
