Writers Need to Keep Writing!

I love reading, and I think that most writers do, too. I went to our local library yesterday, headed straight to the New Book section, and began to peruse the titles. This section is quite large, and it occurred to me that we forget to be grateful for the continued publication of new books and magazines. 

Some people enjoy reading a book more than once. I generally do not. I want something new. I should thank my lucky stars that writers keep writing and publishers keep printing and selling their books, that editors publish myriad pieces in magazines. 

I do love reading, but I also am passionate about writing. I find great pleasure in putting words into sentences, then into paragraphs and on to a full-length piece of writing. Is it all like skipping across the Candyland game board? Most assuredly, not! Even if we enjoy what we do, we run into bumps along the way. 

Maybe that's a good thing, for it teaches us problem-solving in our craft. If we reach a snag, then figure out how to unravel the problem, the next time we encounter a similar snag, we'll have a better knowledge of how to approach it. 

Yesterday, I critiqued an article for someone in my online writing group. In her remarks before the sub, she said she needed to cut 200 words and that she didn't like the opening. A critiquing challenge! She was writing on assignment for a magazine so did have a definite word count to adhere to. I did what I could to cut by deleting and rearranging. But her concern about the opening stumped me. I read it several times, and each time, I felt like I wanted to know more. Seemed like a good opening paragraph to me, and I passed that along to her. One of the best parts of critiquing the work of another writer is that I see with fresh eyes, and I learn from doing the critique. Both writer and critiquer benefit. 

Do your part in keeping those library and book store shelves filled with new books and magazines. Keep writing. Continue to act on the ideas that pop into your head instead of letting them drift away. Keep writing your daily journal or Morning Pages. Whatever you do, keep writing!