Passion Power

When I first started writing I didn’t understand the plight of a writer.  I thought it was just me.  Writer’s block.  Hell ya.  Who do you think you are writing?  Nobody wants to read your shit.  Writers have one thing in common. They don’t write. Many of us give up before we let that happen.  Before we even start we’ve packed it in. Martha Graham wrote “we are never satisfied with our work.  Creative work is a queer divine dissatisfaction that keeps us marching and more alive than the others.”  This speaks right to me.  There is no satisfaction at anytime even after you’ve arrived and I’m strangely comforted by this. Anne Lamott teaches us to write short assignments shitty first drafts and look through 1 inch picture frames.  We do that for awhile and it seems to settle us down a bit until the next storm hits.   “How’s the writing” someone says so innocently.   I hesitate to call myself a writer because i...

J.K. Rowling’s was one of us. She didn’t have any special circumstances. She was a single mom who was broke and living on social assistance. She had a vision and an inner knowing and the courage to hang on to it. 12 Publishers rejected her book. A small house called Bloomsbury Press eventually agreed to publish it. But even then J.K. Rowling was told, “You’ll never make any money on children’s books.” 400,000,000 books later, she is one of the richest women in the world and all because she had the courage, despite obstacles, rejection and financial barriers to do the only work that ever matter to her which was to write. There was no light at the end of the tunnel but she did it anyway. That is taking fear by the arm and saying, “come on we’re doing this.” The world would not know Harry Potter had she listened to the voice of her critics.  She puts it eloquently in this quote. “If you’re holding out for universal popularity I’m afraid you’ll be in this cabin for a very l...

Inspiring Authors to Stay Connected J.K. Rowling’s was one of us. She didn’t have any special circumstances. She was a single mom who was broke and living on social assistance. She had a vision and an inner knowing and the courage to hang on to it. 12 Publishers rejected her book. A small house called Bloomsbury Press eventually agreed to publish it. But even then J.K. Rowling was told, “You’ll never make any money on children’s books.” 400,000,000 books later, she is one of the richest women in the world and all because she had the courage, despite obstacles, rejection and financial barriers to do the only work that ever matter to her which was to write. There was no light at the end of the tunnel but she did it anyway. That is taking fear by the arm and saying, “come on we’re doing this.” The world would not know Harry Potter had she listened to the voice of her critics. She puts it eloquently in this quote. “If you’re holding out for universal popularity I’m afraid yo...