The smart Sarah Stockton posted this article on Facebook. I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep. If you want to be a writer, perhaps take the time to read it. Just a thought.
And while your at it, watch this.
The smart Sarah Stockton posted this article on Facebook. I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep. If you want to be a writer, perhaps take the time to read it. Just a thought.
And while your at it, watch this.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
What a wonderful article! No, not wonderful; that doesn’t describe it. Inspiring? But I should be using verbs. The article inspires me to improve my writing. So much to think about. The video, too, but I saw that before.
Glad you liked it! Keep us posted on the inspiration.
Gosh, what does it say that the article filled me with anxiety? It shot me straight back to college where I majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. My Annie Dillard was the far less famous Deborah Tall, and actually, was my major advisor. I knew I wanted to do this by first term freshman year, when I realized psychology was not as fun to study as I’d imagined it to be.
I think this essay is too close to my life and makes me wonder why I haven’t published yet, why I kept getting sidetracked.
But I am getting revved up in my novel, and I think one of the things I’ve gained in the 17 years since graduating is I’ve let go of my ego. The ego that said I had to be an Annie Dillard or a Toni Morrison. Now I just want to write a good story, a fun story, a well written story with compelling characters. I don’t need to win a nobel prize in literature.
And I’ve certainly also realized that the biggest obstacle to being a writer is ther writer herself.
Now I need to go watch the video.
now I’ve watched the video and that too has inspired. Giving people a voice, that’s the point. Helping their stories be told. This is part of why I became a teacher. This is one of the reasons why the internet is great, because now anyone with access has a chance to be heard.
The article filled me with several emotions–plenty of them negative. And I can’t explain why. But it also inspired me.
So now I’m anxious, conflicted, and inspired among other things…