The Path To Great Writing Is …
They say it starts with something small:
A word, perhaps.
Chain words together and you get a sentence.
The building blocks of great paragraphs.
Link great paragraphs together, and an essay forms.
The edifice for the next grand story?
They may come surging forth like waves onto the seashore
Or look like the glimmer of a lightbulb in darkest night
Illuminating the path ahead.
On other sunrises
The wells are dry as bone
Parched soil
Try as you must,
Howling with suppressed frustration
Even weeping and gnashing of teeth
Doesn’t bring on the surge of yesteryear.
They say writing is facing your deepest fears
Or confronting your innermost failures
Embracing flaws
But it’s also,
Finding lists of joys
Fooling around like bright-eyed boys
Feeling like you’ve stumbled upon a chest of toys
They say writing is thinking
Ah, thinking.
That’s where the work starts blinking
Researching
Seeing what others have said
Pondering
An idea forms in your head
Drafting
Hewing out your guts on the page
Revisions
Now you’ve got to clean up that cage
Setting aside
Because the best ideas need a moment to simmer and stew
Maybe we say “I’m just not feeling it today”.
Head hung low,
Fingers slumped over the keyboard,
Lying limp in limbo
But it’s really about doing the work, isn’t it?
The architect doesn’t say:
“I don’t give a damn about this scaffolding.”
He might hum
He might ho
But he still shows up at the construction site.
Day after day.
Maybe that’s the attitude
We need to adopt
When it sucks
And it will
I still think of that architect
Dragging his feet
Day after day
Brick by brick
But finding his list of joys locked within his soul.
And slowly,
A glimpse of a smile steals
The gloom.
