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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

When You Hit Bottom

Some days you just hit bottom. You look at the rambling, unfocused thoughts in your journal, the half-finished or just-begun-but-abandoned manuscripts filling the folders on your computer, the unrevised poems for that collection you thought was such a good idea and wonder what you have to offer that hasn't already been said, done, written, or sung. And you come up with an answer that looks like the bottom of a peanut butter jar scraped with a spatula.


So what do you do? Read a book, watch a movie, eat a box of vanilla wafers (without the peanut butter, of course), the whole box. Anything but stare into that empty jar. 

But eventually you have to confront the lie. You have to look at yourself and say, "That's not true." You have to begin again to speak the truth to yourself. You are a writer because you love to write, you love the words, you love the stories, the sounds, the syntax.

And you open a new file or turn the page in your journal and begin again, because if you don't, you'll be miserable, because you're a writer. Like it or not. That's the truth. 




6 comments:

  1. Oh I know that bottom of the peanut butter jar. And also know pulling out the knife and moving on. That's the life, part of the truth you note. I do wish you happier days, perhaps even taking another look in the jar, with better lighting, and finding something good there.

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    1. Thanks, Jeannine. Maybe I'll pull out a flashlight and plunder around in there again.

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  2. I've had my share of those days, too, but you're absolutely right about picking yourself up and beginning again.

    It's a writer's life for me--and you wouldn't have it any other way, either!

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  3. You were such an inspiration in the presentation I attended last year. You have things to say and a way of seeing that no one else has. So have another jar of peanut butter (maybe with some radishes this time -- my favorite) and jump back into those files... we need you. -- Sandy Fry

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    1. With radishes?!! Now that's a different way of looking at peanut butter! Thank you for your kind words, Sandy.

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