“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”
– Oscar Wilde
Hi Writers:
This newsletter is a work in progress by a work in progress. I’ll never get it right, finished, or even really ready to send out before the 3rd of the month rolls around again and I have to hit SEND. But isn’t all writing like that? It’s never good enough. I could spend years changing the fonts, re-writing the opening, rearranging the listings. At some point I must pry it from my strangling hands before I wring the life completely out of it.
The point is that this newsletter does go out. One dear reader confirmed my sentiment Wednesday night. After we had listened to author Anne Packer read her punchy prose, we stood by the grand piano eating cranberry walnut cookies. She said, “I’m so excited. I got the newsletter last month and I read that little kick in the butt you gave us about writing. After not writing for quite awhile, I actually wrote three times last week.”
She couldn’t have paid me a more generous compliment if she’d said the newsletter had led her to a million dollar book contract. I mean, that would be lovely, but I have smaller, more delicious fish to fry. I watch out for the person who wants to write, knows she must write, has all the stories in his head and is bursting to tell them, but who can’t get to the page. I want to see those writers just sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and get their hands moving. I want that for all writers. So when she told me this newsletter helped her write, suddenly the four days I had just spent removing and replacing commas became entirely worthwhile.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead; make my day.
Write something!
Nita(was that the proper use of a semi-colon?) Sweeney
(c) 2003 by Nita Sweeney