What It's About

Today was a hard day. One of those days where I wonder why the heck I do what I do. I’ve talked a little bit before about the ups and downs of the actual writing process. Anne Lamott says it best in Bird By Bird and this is just one of the many, many keen observations in her treasure of a book:

My writer friends, and they are legion, do not go around beaming with quiet feelings of contentment. Most of them go around with haunted, abused, surprised looks on their faces, like lab dogs on whom very personal deodorant sprays have been tested…when my writer friends are working, they feel better and more alive than they do at any other time.

The combination of trying to do the work of writing combined with the business of publishing and the intensity of our social media culture can wreak havoc on the soul. It can, in fact, shred you to pieces. It doesn’t leave a lot of space to create and find those moments when you “feel better and more alive.” One person I spoke to today about the anxiety and pressure of it all used the word “maelstrom,” which is far more civilized than my term for it (begins with “cluster”). The other person (my husband) said: “Imagine…