WELCOME!

Writing is a solitary pursuit--the imagination guiding the hand moving the pen. I'm pretty old-school, valuing the work of good editors and the revisions process before letting my words go public. But life is short, right? And sometimes, just sometimes, we need to spout off.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Dog blog

I promise, no more allusions to pets--at least for now. But, about waiting. Wouldn't it be nice to have the patience of a tortoise as we await the Muse's visitation, or editors to stir the slush pile now and then, or the pot. Yes, as one of my writing pals reminds me, 90 % of writing is waiting. How true. The thing is, waiting is easier once you've got the assurance of something, anything. We writers are a steadfast, optimistic lot, despite the myths about lapsing into alcoholic stupors in freezing garrets. But we're also chronically restless, and the only antidote is a story cooking, whether at a slow simmer or a rolling boil. Such an odd tension between the need to pretend we have forever, and the urgency we inflict on ourselves that without action our ideas, our gifts, will dry up, disappear, check out and maybe take themselves for a swim wearing concrete shoes. The urge to fly, and the urge to keep both feet on the ground. Impossible not to think of Beckett, Waiting for Godot. Or the average five-year-old in the backseat, demanding, Are we there yet? Waiting for Time, as the Newfoundland novelist Bernice Morgan entitled one of her books. Speaking of which, time, isn't blogging like a sort of babysitter, depending on how you regard it? It can be like the sitter who ignores the kids to go smoke up in the bathroom, or the one who gets down on all fours playing horse or leapfrog, or digging snow tunnels. The point is, for now anyway, it's fun, and at least it uses some of the same brain cells as Writing. So, until tomorrow, au revoir!

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