When I look at the major events in my life—leaving home on the eve of eighteen, traveling alone (as a painfully shy person) in Europe in my early twenties, falling crazy in love with my husband at twenty-nine, the difficult surprise of my daughter’s birth, publishing my first essay in The New York Times—each of these events, I see now, represent, for me, an essential moment of emergence. They felt sudden at the time, but I see now that each was preceded by a gradual, unseen, tidal upsurge of significant force. There was a way in which something in me rose up, each time, to meet providence, or whatever it was—at just the right and necessary moment—and I found myself shooting off to places I didn’t expect and couldn’t have planned.
I’ve come to think of the creative process in these terms, too. We bob quietly on our surfboards, listening for the deep rumbling of the Big Wave. When we sense it gathering power out beyond the horizon, we begin to turn our boards to shore, and we watch, and we wait, and we hope we’ll be ready, and we try not to freak out. When it finally approaches, more massive than we imagined, we begin to paddle hard and kick with everything we’ve got, and when we feel the water rise twenty, thirty, a hundred feet, and we feel the thing begin to crest—that’s the moment we jump to our feet, committing ourselves completely to the ride, wherever it takes us.
In your work as well, I respect the power of your source. I immerse myself in your words. Whether they’re baroque or plainspoken, hilarious or lyrical, I listen for the sound of your authentic voice. I watch for the emergence of your style, your story. You.
In an atmosphere of optimism and encouragement, we look between your words and your lines. Affirming your strengths as a writer, we create a climate for your success. If structure is what you need to keep your project moving, I’ll help you set specific goals, develop a strategy, and acquire the tools necessary to reach them. I’ll hold you accountable for the commitments you make to yourself. Together, we’ll keep a steady eye on your larger vision and intention.
The truth is, we all suffer self-doubt. We fear exposure, humiliation, criticism. We’re afraid to start, or sometimes, we fear finishing. We worry about lack of motivation, lack of inspiration, lack of talent. We’re afraid to fail. We’re afraid to succeed.
None of this is reason to avoid waxing up your board and heading out. What awaits you is the satisfaction of important accomplishment. And the exhilaration of a great ride.
Ready?
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"Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."
~ Barbara Kingsolver
"When rewriting, move quickly. It's a little like cutting your own hair.'"
~ Robert Stone
"Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'"
~ Jane Smiley
