Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Friday, January 28, 2011

Born to Write

After years of not doing so, I have finally changed my scrolling marquee. Born to Write. That's my new shtick, and the marquee may remain unchanged again for many years ahead.

Why "Born to Write"?

I was clearing out some old e-mails in my inbox last week, and I came across a couple I had saved from back in 2002 and 2003. There was a reason I saved these e-mails--to remind myself that no matter what, there are other people who believe in me. These e-mails were from my undergraduate advisor (truly more than that, as he allowed me to get away with writing fantasy for assignments in his classes) and in response to applications I had sent out to creative writing graduate programs. I was in quite a miserable state after a couple of rejections.

Well, one sentence in those e-mails struck me again as I read it. He told me: "We both know you were born to write."

It's hard for me to put into words how much I appreciated his support and how his words still touch me. He's right, though--I was born to write.

That sentence was followed by, "Just follow the path best you can through this forest." And that path led me to the Writing Popular Fiction program at SHU, all those years ago (and yes, now I'm back in the program to snag that F). I'm still on that path too. Once in a while the trees close in and I wonder if they'll swallow up the trail, but they don't, and I keep moving.

What does this all mean? That I was Born to Write, of course! So, I'm continuing to slog ahead and push forward. It doesn't matter if I ever get a novel published because that's not going to stop me from writing. I'm going to write until my body grows cold and then is nothing but ashes on the wind.

And I hope, one day, I can touch another writer as I've been touched, to tell someone else that they were Born to Write.

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