No Excuses

How long have you been working on your current project? A day? A month? Six months? A year? Ten years? Since the Reagan administration?


I'll be honest. The project I'm working on now I started in June of 2010, so I'm looking at two and a half years right now and isn't like I've been writing the next War and Peace. I've had to put it away for long periods of time. It can be disheartening to admit that, but I'm happy that I'm working on it on a semi-regular basis right now (at least once a week) and that I'm making progress. Maybe, before another two and a half years are up, I will manage to complete it!

I'm came across this quote today in the July/August issue of Poets and Writers which offered a good reminder.

 "The truth is, if we're doing good work there is no need to justify it. No matter how long it takes; no matter how many revisions have been scrapped or how many agents and editors have rejected us, we shouldn't have to offer excuses for how we got here. Living a life (with its attendant mortgage payments, pediatrician appointments, and flat tires) and writing a great poem or story or essay or book are not mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite. The writing life is messy, and there's no secret to success. Instead there are many paths leading to where you want to go."

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