I’ve been thinking a lot about Poppy’s wise words from last fall, “Never give up.” And then, during our podcast interview for “A Drink with a Friend,” Maile said something that caught my attention: “Writing is for everyone.”
Writing is for everyone.
So often, the Resistance I feel to writing comes from this space of feeling like whatever I’m working on will never be important, never be widely read, never be a world-changing piece of literature.
And of course that’s a terrible way to approach doing anything we love. I love Maile’s words, “Writing is for everyone,” because they’re true: writing is for the mom scribbling in her journal, the teenager trying her hand at a short story, the middle-aged guy writing his first novel, or the old woman whose been at it for decades.
Writing is for everyone. Never give up. Keep getting these stories down.
And now, here are four things for your weekend:
I always love hearing experts talk about their craft. Here Anne Patchett gives the background to one of her books of essays.
“The fun thing is to say there’s some kind of energy that I’m manifesting as I’m writing line to line, and it has a larger form, but to know in advance what that form is would reduce it.”
“The writing life can be lonely. With several unpublished novels sitting idle on my computer, rejection and isolation had eroded my desire to continue. As soon as I enrolled in the Nine Month Novel, the community rallied together, providing the support and accountability I needed to try again.”
Tsh Oxenreider is trying her hand at something new. She joined us on our podcast this week to chat about it.
Today’s Video of a Novel entry (Day 10) is public for anyone to watch! If you’d like to have access to every single video that I make in this series as I forge ahead with the writing of my next novel, become a paying subscriber by hitting the Subscribe Now button below.