Writers, Sometimes You Gotta LET GO
I mean, the shadows are perhaps more stunning than the actual trees!
It reminded me of a middle grade novel that I worked and reworked and revised and reimagined for YEARS. In the book, shadows were characters.
But I never quite got there with that book, and by the last time I set it aside, it had lost its joy, its music. I had worked it to DEATH!
But. Seeing this photo my son took reminded me of my once-upon-a-time passion for that story. And because we live in a culture that embraces/promotes/urges "KEEP GOING!," of course I dipped back into the folder, just to see what was there and if there was any life left.
I was momentarily seduced by possibility, by the "maybe" in my mind. But then I remembered: even though our culture doesn't like it, sometimes the best thing to do is to LET GO.
But not all projects are meant to live that long. Here in this Year of the Snake, it's a good time to remember that sometimes the best thing we can do is shed our skin. Let go of the old. Move on. Because it's that letting go that opens the space for the next bit of magic and music. . .
And you know, letting go doesn't mean you've wasted your time. It doesn't even necessarily mean a complete relinquishment. Maybe shadows will slither into another of my stories. Surely some of the things I learned while writing (and writing and WRITING) that book will pop up in future projects.
So I closed the folder again. Reminded myself the way forward does not mean carrying everything with me. Just because that book never became an actual book doesn't mean failure. It's just part of the process, part of a writer's journey.
Time for me to again make a choice. To take the next step and the next toward joy and my current passion.
Time to let go.
Everything you write informs everything else you write--it's a never-ending journey.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said, Irene. I too have a story that I know has potential, but there it has sat, reworked and never quite coming to its full potential. It pulls at me. Your post is a good reminder sometimes we need to let our darlings go to make room for new ones.:)
ReplyDeleteThis Florida gal is frondly fond of your son's B/W visual artwork of palms. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteYour great sharing of "Letting Go" wisdom, dear pal Irene, is serendipity! It comes "smack dab in the middle" [ if I may borrow] of my gray frayed folder, open on the spare bedroom bed, of picture books I wrote at Hollins one summer in a fab. class from wonderful author Hillary Homzie. And ,so far [smack dab in the middle of them, I am] none earned a trip back onto my "return to them" list.
BUT you are right, there is gold in them thar tired, overly panned hills, sometimes.
I have found a poem idea in one & riffed all the way to a poem d r a f t in the other.
Glad you kept all those files, notebooks, pages.
Great advice. I so enjoy learning from you.
ReplyDelete