What I’m Reading Today: More great Cunningham.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I write. Also why I write. Inevitably, when I’m sick, the well dries up, and I feel bereft, depressed, like I’ll never write again. I have to keep reminding myself that, in the immortal words of Annie, “The sun will come out tomorrow, tomorrow. The sun will shine tomorrow. Tomorrow’s just a day away.”
(A song that the bar regulars where I used bartend would sing to me with my name instead of “tomorrow”: “We love ya, Tamara.” :-) )
I’ve also been despairing lately about how far you can stretch your creative talents. It takes creativity to do the stuff I do for my work-work, I write this blog, I do creative things for the kids, I've been cooking a lot more, and I do other stuff. Am I using up my creativity in these other ways? Also energy - there’s only so much to go around. A finite amount. Am I frittering it away?
Inevitably, though, I recover from being sick, and then I get on a roll, and away I go! Just as I look past rejections to down the road, I try to look past writing droughts and have faith in the process. Yes, of course I’ll write again.
(Though it was particularly disheartening, being in this state of mind, to see the piece on Ernest Gains in the NYT this morning.)
And, when I talk to other writer friends who are going through a dry patch, I always tell them, keep the faith. Because a big part of it is about holding it together, keep trying, another day will dawn.
I guess today’s post isn’t exactly about how I write. Ah well.
Questions of the Day: How do you keep the faith through the dark ages?
No comments:
Post a Comment