I am very excited to say that I have a new novel coming out next year – more on that later, of course. But I am not so excited to say that for the past year I have done little to no creative writing. I have written about 500 words of fiction and one poem. Really, nearly nothing. But I have been writing reams of other things, like emails, magazine articles, fundraising proposals, business strategies, board papers, program descriptions, lesson plans — everything that goes into the business of running a non-profit. Writing Through has been, and will be for the foreseeable future, taking up most of my time.
Believe me, I’m not complaining. I am passionate about the good work I am doing outside my office, and for years I have spoken about the idea of taking your creativity off the page and into the world. But not writing….I mean writing writing, my own writing, well…that often feels bad and I bet that it is the same with many of my writer friends who find themselves in the midst of ‘dry spells.’
I am here today with a quotation that made me feel better the instant I read it, and may make others feel better, too. I found it in the front of a beautiful book published in 1992 by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston called Henry David Thoreau: The Poet’s Delay. Here it is, a small gift to us all:
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it. —Henry David Thoreau
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