Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Tuesday's Inspiration taken from a book of essays by John Gardner


Every few years when I start feeling stressed by the writing projects I'm working on, I pull out this book of essays by John Gardner published in 1983. When I was at a low point in my writing career, having returned to work as a nurse and being unable to write, I picked up a copy of On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner. This wasn't the usual book on writing that talked about methods and ways to write but about the spirit and soul of a writer.

The opening essay was titled The Writer's Nature. This spoke of the question a beginning writer asks and sometimes a writer who has stopped writing for some reason. "Do I have what it takes to be a writer?"

The one thing in the opening to the essay that struck me was stubbornness or persistence. That was definitely one of my traits. So while I worked as a nurse I garnered other things, experiences and people that I would use when I returned to writing.

What I had wasn't exactly a writer's block but more a dormant period where I rested and waited. So the first thing a writer needs is that persistence that allows him or her to get up after being slapped down and moving on. A dormant period is what gives us the material to go on in the future. So hold onto the dream and and know one day the dormant seeds will bloom again.

No comments:

Post a Comment