The fact that it
has been raining almost all weekend makes me so happy that I can't really think
of anything else to write about. I just really want to sit and listen to the
water falling. I want to watch it sink into the thirsty soil. I live on top of
about 750 feet of sandstone. When the rain is gentle, it soaks in. If it rains
hard on a dry sandy surface, it just runs off. So I'm happy that what we've had
is more of a gardener's rain than a tempest, especially since it's been so dry
for so long.
But.
As Natalie
Goldberg says, “Shut up and write.” Whether you “feel” like it or not. As Alex
Fletcher says to Sophie Fisher in Music
and Lyrics, “Inspiration is for amateurs.” And as Ann Patchett said in an
interview, what she learned while working at Seventeen magazine was to write efficiently. It’s your job. It
doesn’t matter what kind of mood you’re in. (Or something like that. I can’t
remember the exact quote. But what I heard was: put your butt in the chair and
your fingers on the keyboard or around the pen and get to it. No excuses and no
wastes of time.)
With that in
mind, I’m going to go sit on the couch with my favorite story notebook and get
busy.
No comments:
Post a Comment