I realize that I have not put much information about myself on here, but this is largely due to my mistrust of the interwebs (that's for you, Heather). However, as I've stated before, inspiration can come at any time. My friend's insights into their own worlds have emboldened me.
I write...well, I write anything but poetry. It's not that I don't care for poetry. I'm just not very good at it. At the moment, I am writing a fantasy novel as well as a series of children's stories that also flirt with the fantastic. Yes, it is true. I was that 90 pound geek with his nose stuck in a book for the majority of his formative years. I still own the boxed set of Tolkien's works that started me on that path all those many years ago. The corners of the box are frayed and rounded with handling while the books themselves have but a fragile hold on their well worn covers. It was these stories that set the fire in my imagination and set me on a path of dreams.
My talent is descriptive prose. I am able to paint with words a tableau that draws the reader in and imbues a sense of time and place. This isn't meant to be bravado. I have known that I could do this since elementary school and have been told by teacher and critic alike that this the case. But therein lies the proverbial rub. Despite this knowledge, I don't believe. I am in constant doubt of my skill and my work. I know that I can (when I am in my "state of grace") that I can make the reader feel the good or the bad that I am trying to convey. Yet, I don't believe that it is enough. This is not an uncommon sentiment in this field of endeavor, which is why I mention it.
There are volumes and hours of video detailing how you, yes, you can get past this failing. However, in the end, only you can get yourself through it. We all have our methods. David will beat the drum of perseverance, while the Randy scrivens away in the cloister of his laboratory. Keith finds solace in his commune with tobacco and John Deere, while Heather travels to find inspiration in the wonders of the wide world.
That leaves me, then. How do I persevere? Sheer stubbornness, really. That and a promise I made to a teacher I respected above all others. She made me promise to never stop writing.
I intend to keep that promise.
"Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell
Forget about a promise you made to a teacher. Follow your bliss.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
Geez, I once promised a teacher I'd stop chewing gum....
ReplyDeleteI sit next to a former teacher in our group meetings. As you know, she doesn't cut me any slack at all and I doubt it would help if I brought her an apple, whether it was fruit or a computer.
ReplyDelete