The Thing to Remember

When you're struggling with what you're writing

Remember that even when it seems most difficult and most unyielding, it’s always ‘going well’ if you’re working on it, struggling with it, even struggling to dream up the next line, because that’s the true nature of it; that means it’s in its natural first phase—the phase of becoming. And therefore, so what if some of the phases of its becoming are painful or confusing. Seems to me something is lacking if that is not the case. If you indeed are simply lucky enough to have a place and time to be pained and confused while you give it what it needs to bring it into being, then everything is as it should be. Nothing is wasted. So, go on and do the hard work, which can also mean sitting and staring at it for a time. At the end of each day, allow yourself one question and one question only: did I work today? If the answer is ‘Yes,’--no other questions.