I love that you took yourself to Palermo. And that photo of you is STUNNING.
"....all badges ever end up doing is pulling me further away from myself." Gah, yes. And yet I keep thinking I need the badge for admission to this writerly life. Thank you for your transparency, always. I have started and stopped my own book proposal more times than I can count because of my deep fear of legitimacy. I am a writer and I am so damn close to finishing this thing. And if my thing doesn't get picked up by an agent, I'll still have it and it will always be mine.
Thank you, Holly. For the reminders that it starts with us, always. We don't have to earn our right to write.
And this round up is going to feed me for a while. TY!
I think we're in some kind of apex situation with this fear of not being a legitimate writer because we've outsourced so much to the audience and the gaze, and celebrate the same handful of authors, constantly. Some of my favorite writing is by people no one has ever heard of; some of the things that have changed me the most are things that maybe a hundred people read; and the best things I have ever written are always the least popular.
Yes! And I'll add to that - some of the lines I've heard at sobriety meetings impact me more than sentences in a book. It all adds up, for me, to simply being someone who craves words that move me and settle into me. That's all it takes. They don't have to come from an "authority" or renowned author.
Re: feeling like a writer. I had a dream recently in which I was trying to get to a lover who was on the 9th floor of a building. I only made it to the 8th floor and the steps to the 9th were so steep I was afraid to take them. I found an elevator, but it was so small I couldn't get into it.
Working on the premise that all characters in a dream are representations of ourselves, I concluded I have spent a lot of my life trying to locate a part of me which has often felt beyond reach, and that this struggle is sometimes made harder when you don't know what that part is for.
Writing, for me at least, plays the role that music used to when I wrote songs instead of memoir. It helps me locate myself on unreachable levels of buildings. It's also for my children to read when I'm gone and they wonder about who I really was, a question I carry about my own parents. If anyone else gets something from it, that must be considered a blessing and a bonus.
First, this dream. I'm not a dream person so I have never heard this premise, and wow does that change some things. (Curious: is that like, a dream thing, a Jung thing?) Anyway, I love that interpretation so much and the opening that asking what something is for creates. I honestly am always on the backfoot w that question; every time someone asks I have to think of the answer, and I'm still not sure the reason, but I would say it too helps me locate myself on unreachable levels of bldgs
He would probably suggest it means a degree of dismissal to the power of the unconscious, but I’m not a Jungian and therefore can’t really comment on his behalf 😊
I love that you took yourself to Palermo. And that photo of you is STUNNING.
"....all badges ever end up doing is pulling me further away from myself." Gah, yes. And yet I keep thinking I need the badge for admission to this writerly life. Thank you for your transparency, always. I have started and stopped my own book proposal more times than I can count because of my deep fear of legitimacy. I am a writer and I am so damn close to finishing this thing. And if my thing doesn't get picked up by an agent, I'll still have it and it will always be mine.
Thank you, Holly. For the reminders that it starts with us, always. We don't have to earn our right to write.
And this round up is going to feed me for a while. TY!
I think we're in some kind of apex situation with this fear of not being a legitimate writer because we've outsourced so much to the audience and the gaze, and celebrate the same handful of authors, constantly. Some of my favorite writing is by people no one has ever heard of; some of the things that have changed me the most are things that maybe a hundred people read; and the best things I have ever written are always the least popular.
Yes! And I'll add to that - some of the lines I've heard at sobriety meetings impact me more than sentences in a book. It all adds up, for me, to simply being someone who craves words that move me and settle into me. That's all it takes. They don't have to come from an "authority" or renowned author.
Re: feeling like a writer. I had a dream recently in which I was trying to get to a lover who was on the 9th floor of a building. I only made it to the 8th floor and the steps to the 9th were so steep I was afraid to take them. I found an elevator, but it was so small I couldn't get into it.
Working on the premise that all characters in a dream are representations of ourselves, I concluded I have spent a lot of my life trying to locate a part of me which has often felt beyond reach, and that this struggle is sometimes made harder when you don't know what that part is for.
Writing, for me at least, plays the role that music used to when I wrote songs instead of memoir. It helps me locate myself on unreachable levels of buildings. It's also for my children to read when I'm gone and they wonder about who I really was, a question I carry about my own parents. If anyone else gets something from it, that must be considered a blessing and a bonus.
First, this dream. I'm not a dream person so I have never heard this premise, and wow does that change some things. (Curious: is that like, a dream thing, a Jung thing?) Anyway, I love that interpretation so much and the opening that asking what something is for creates. I honestly am always on the backfoot w that question; every time someone asks I have to think of the answer, and I'm still not sure the reason, but I would say it too helps me locate myself on unreachable levels of bldgs
Yes, this is classic Jung 😆
I'm so averse to dream stuff! I wonder what he'd say about that.
He would probably suggest it means a degree of dismissal to the power of the unconscious, but I’m not a Jungian and therefore can’t really comment on his behalf 😊