“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” – Richard Wright
“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.” — Vita Sackville-West
This is the view of the Catalina Mountains from my third-floor bedroom balcony. The sliver of rock between the two larger humps is called finger rock. I’ve adopted it as a finger pointing at me, asking: “So have you met your writing goal today?” — Photo by Pat Bean
Is it Good Enough?
I’ve been a writer for half a century, although I didn’t call myself one for many years. It seems to be a failing with writers. Many of us think that unless we’ve written a best-selling book, we’re just a piddler of words.
I recently met such a person, a retired history professor who read a chapter of his book in progress. He started it by saying “I’m not a writer.” But he was. His words were richer and more readable than those of many a published author. I later told him he was a writer, and should call himself just that
The place where I spend many hours a week. Sometimes I simply open the shutters and gaze out the windows, wondering. — Photo by Pat Bean
Yet, even as I accept that my book, “Travels with Maggie” — which is undergoing a final editing — contains some of my best work, this Monday morning I found myself asking: “Is it good enough” – good enough to throw out to the public and risk it not being good enough?
Perhaps I’m still thinking about the words contained in a blog I read this past week: “The fine line between creativity and crap.”
Why do writers have such a hard time admitting they are writers when asked their occupations? What’s the proper usage of passed and past? Do I write my book in first or third person? Will what I write offend a loved one? What will someone think if they read my journals and learn my true feelings? Why can’t I find an agent for my book, is it not good enough?
The questions are endless, and writers seem to have too many of them rattling around in their heads, like a poisonous snake coiled and ready to kill their ability to write. Some call it writer’s block.
I’m learning to call it simply wondering.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: Lime Bird Writers http://tinyurl.com/nv7mrs6 One of the writing blogs I follow regularly. This day’s blog offers some market opportunities.
Pat Bean's blog 
Your question about journals struck me because I used to burn my journals. Once a year, into the bonfire it would go. Years have gone up in smoke for fear someone would read and judge. I don’t do that anymore.
Love seeing where you work. And I’m looking forward to reading your book. 🙂
I’m glad you no longer burn them Robin. I never did that but I censored them, which is even worse
A lovely post. I don’t know why we have trouble admitting that we’re writers. Perhaps because we have an idea of what a successful writer looks like (J. K. Rowling). Or we’ve had to deal with people who ask, “Oh? Have I read something you’ve written?” after you admit to being a writer. (Yes, this has happened to me.) I dunno, Pat. Perhaps having the guts to first admit what we are, and then pursuing it as if our lives depended on it would help.
Thanks Marie. I guess we writers are just a funny lot Have a great day
I think men don’t have a problem with saying they are writers. In fact, they brag about it!… something I noticed over the years.
Men also don’t have a problem with asking their boss for a raise. Women do. I once had an editor tell me — after I did ask for a raise and got it — he didn’t see any reason to give raises to women who didn’t ask for them. Men always do, he said.