Just Write

From Elizabeth Gilbert’s web site:

Her essay mentions that she did not get a MFA. Instead, she took a series of odd jobs on ranches and in restaurants and kept writing and showing her writing to people. That reminded me of the debate that seems never to die: “Should You Get the MFA or Not”? That debate is also known as: “Is the MFA Worth It?”

Here is what she has to say about writing… She writes about how hard we are on ourselves with our writing. I had to laugh at her comment about the one hour per day. How many times have I said I’d write one hour per day. It took me a long time to realize I do better with concentrated bursts and then periods of rest.

“The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck. When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.”