Kelly Flanagan
The best thing about being a writer is how confident it makes you, how you never again have to question if what inside of you is worth exposing for everyone to consider and criticize. Also, the easy attention—people stopping you in restaurants and begging for a selfie. And the riches, of course—bestseller lists and big advances. Not to mention the unwavering sense of purpose—the feeling of changing the world for the better in one fell swoop.
Actually.
I’m never more insecure than when I’m writing and wondering if I have anything useful to say at all. Most of us writers toil in relative anonymity forever. We work for minimum wage. We work for a year, two, three, maybe more, exposing ourselves to the world, then we release it and more often than not, a few people get excited for a few weeks, and you have to wonder if what you’re doing with your life matters at all.
No, the best thing about being a writer isn’t anything momentous; rather it’s a moment. It’s the moment you travel into yourself, discover an inward dimension you didn’t know existed—like Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy walking into an ordinary wardrobe and finding themselves in Narnia—and then return to the rest of the world with a word or two you discovered there. Something you had no idea existed within you and, perhaps, doesn’t really exist within you, given that it felt like it came from another place beyond space and another time beyond time. It’s the moment your character does something you didn’t plan and you discover you are as much an audience to the unfolding story as your readers are—even if those readers are just a few good friends.
The best thing about being a writer is that it’s a spiritual experience. And like any spiritual experience, it’s mostly a lot of discipline and tedium. Until. Until the moment you realize YOU are the wardrobe, and there are worlds within you that only you can explore. You’ll discover terrible witches there, and long, long winters, but also breathtaking lions, and springtimes that feel like a resurrection.
Actually.
I’m never more insecure than when I’m writing and wondering if I have anything useful to say at all. Most of us writers toil in relative anonymity forever. We work for minimum wage. We work for a year, two, three, maybe more, exposing ourselves to the world, then we release it and more often than not, a few people get excited for a few weeks, and you have to wonder if what you’re doing with your life matters at all.
No, the best thing about being a writer isn’t anything momentous; rather it’s a moment. It’s the moment you travel into yourself, discover an inward dimension you didn’t know existed—like Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy walking into an ordinary wardrobe and finding themselves in Narnia—and then return to the rest of the world with a word or two you discovered there. Something you had no idea existed within you and, perhaps, doesn’t really exist within you, given that it felt like it came from another place beyond space and another time beyond time. It’s the moment your character does something you didn’t plan and you discover you are as much an audience to the unfolding story as your readers are—even if those readers are just a few good friends.
The best thing about being a writer is that it’s a spiritual experience. And like any spiritual experience, it’s mostly a lot of discipline and tedium. Until. Until the moment you realize YOU are the wardrobe, and there are worlds within you that only you can explore. You’ll discover terrible witches there, and long, long winters, but also breathtaking lions, and springtimes that feel like a resurrection.
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