The Writing Life
Spiritual and emotional growth happens in microscopic increments. — David Brooks
It’s great to have big goals and dreams, but they can sometimes steal from the present. There is no room for anything but THE MISSION. The world tarnishes. You begin to feel impoverished.
I believe writers have to read. I don’t have scientific data to prove the “why” of the claim; I only know that my writing improves the more I immerse myself in the writing of others. Such writing may be easy to read, and some of it may be difficult. Almost all of it makes me uncomfortable in some way. It challenges me to think through a subject, to explore how ideas in the work interact with my own, or to study how the writing itself works. As I do so, my own work grows. It initially takes on characteristics of what I’m reading, then my writing absorbs what I’ve learned and experienced. The form becomes something that is mine, something that is distinctively “Erin.”
The point of Write Right is not to club people with grammar rules. It is not to discourage writers who either are new to the writing life or who are struggling to write for one reason or another. It is not to criticize poor writing for the sake of criticizing poor writing.
An aspect of the “where do you find the time” question related to goals. The question was whether publishing as often as I do helps me to reach any sort of real goal, and, if so, what goal that was. I’ve been thinking about the question a lot and have been trying to find the words to describe my goals.