Mark – I have really found that looking at it this way, like the development of a habit, has helped me demystify and remove some of the anxiety associated with the process. For example, I don’t have ‘writer’s block’ I have ‘sluggish’ days. I look at diving into a blank page, a new scene sort of like those first ten minutes of getting the blood circulating with exercise – some days a training session has a sort of effortless animal grace about it, other days my blood is full of lead and my body is screaming “No! I want to go eat cheese puffs and hide in bed! Leave me alone!”

My revelation about the mind numbing labor to make it read “simple” came at college when I hated my first scribblings (poetry) with a despair I so dark it was making me sick. Naturally, I was constantly comparing my little yawps with the majestically SIMPLE (later) work of my favorite guy at that time, W.B. Yeats. Then, through a happy accident, I had the “duhh” moment that changed me forever.

Linda and Deanna and everyone else who followed Alegra here: thanks so much for the visit, and come back anytime. I do try to keep the digs fresh and interesting. And many, many thanks, of course, to Alegra, whose spirit lights up any digs she walks (or surfs) into.

Linda – Thank you! You are so right about the time management. I was thinking about this the other day when someone asked me, “How do you do it?” And I realized the short answer is actually a question: “How can I NOT do it?” If the door to a dream that has been in you since childhood cracks open…of course you are going to do everything in your power to keep that door open and walk through! Well, at least that is what I would do ;o)

Deanna – YOu are very welcome! I know what it is like to work through physical disabilities and motherhood. I suffered chronic fatigue for years due to an undiagnosed heart problem – I think it really helped me to focus and distill my life down to its essence. I had no other choice. Writing has always been one thing that effortlessly energizes me.

You know, you ARE a superwoman, but what I admire about you is you note your priorities — and you don’t deviate from them. As a mom and academic, I make room for writing by ‘giving up’ time wasters like tv and malls. I write in the early am because that way for sure it gets done. Late nights is bonus time. My vacation days are usually spent at home writing while the kiddos are in school.

Patience? One word at a time.

Like your digs, Bill — I’ll be back! Peace, Linda

Watching star athletes can be inspiring. But they make it look so easy. I played basketball when I was young, and I was very serious about it. Watching Michael Jorden penetrate and maneuver in the paint always amazed me: he seemed to contrive it that no one was any closer than 2 feet to him. Sometimes it even looked choreographed. That’s not “real” basketball, I would think, where guys are collapsing on you, tugging on your jersey, forcing you to foul them, make a bad pass, take a bad shot. Jordon seemed to always have air around him. He made it look like a walk in the park. Steve Nash in more recent times sometimes has achieved this air of effortlessness in or near the paint. It looks like an illusion.

And that’s my point (finally): the great ones create an illusion that makes the hard look easy. You read them and you think, “That’s so simple. I could write that.” You feel the excitement that something great might even be within our own reach, and it’s thrilling and inspirational.

Yet…it can also inspire bad writing. Because what DOESN’T show is the intense amount of work that went into making it seem like nobody actually “worked” on it. Jordan and Nash “effortlessly” inhabit the right square inch of the court at just the right millisecond because of the hundreds of thousands of hours of work that went into creating the possibilities of that moment AND MAKING THEM LOOK EASY. End of rant.

I love the idea that inspiration can be actively sought, and believe in it totally. If you know how to hunt and “catch” it, you can carry on a writing life in short bursts that rivals, if not surpasses, your productivity at those times when you’re blessed with stretches of 6-8 unencumbered hours.

Patience is important. But what exactly IS patience? Some people think it’s just waiting your turn. I think it’s something close to wisdom. Patience pulls together awareness, vision, realism, and confidence. Think about how “impatient” people usually come up lacking in one or more of these areas:

• They act without being fully aware of consequences.
• They act without an accurate vision of what they want, or how to achieve it.
• They are driven to act by desires so unrealistic as to be destructive.
• They lack the kind of confidence you need to bide your time as you prepare for a realistic run on the possible.

(and I’ll take my answer off the air…)