I got stuck back into my work-in-progress this morning. It felt good. As is the usual case when I pull out a ‘rested’ piece, I read it over and found repetitions and clunky expressions and I had a “Why bother?” moment.
Then I sucked up the fear, ripped the story apart, changed the POV, deleted a character, then put it back together, and there’s been an improvement. I think so, anyway.
This is why writing can be frightening. Exhilarating, but frightening.
Part of me wonders if this new-found courage can be (at least partially) attributed to Brené Brown’s most recent TED talk that I watched online late last night. (Feed readers will need to click through to watch.)
There is a little debate in the comments section as to the ways ‘shame and ‘guilt’ have defined, but what I took from this talk – and perhaps more so from her first one which is well-known – was its aspirational quality. If we all waited outside the arena, as she calls it, for the right moment: to be perfect or pretty or powerful enough to make a difference or do good work, then we may forever be left waiting. And I agree.
