I don’t remember how far back the E.R. episodes with Sherry Stringfield ran, but I loved watching her character and following her storyline. One of the most emotional seasons involved Sherry’s younger sister Chloe, a drug addict, suddenly showing up out of nowhere with her little baby girl. Sherry takes her sister and the baby in and lets them live with her. She and the baby develop a bond, born mostly out of her sister’s continual absence as she resumes her drug habit. Eventually, Chloe splits, and Sherry files for adoption. All is going smoothly, until Chloe shows up again, stating that she is recovered and that she wants her baby back. There is a heart rending scene at the end of that episode, in which Sherry sits alone in her apartment, talking to herself. One of the things she said impacted me to the point that I wrote it down in my journal. It was this: “You can’t try to be happy. It either comes or it doesn’t.”
I think this is true with writing as well. I just had a wonderful day working on my new book - after three days of nothing at all. Today the words and sentences and paragraphs came out of my fingertips like water, with almost no effort. Yesterday, and the two days before that, I stared at the screen, typed a few words, erased them, typed up a paragraph, erased it, stared at the screen, and then turned the computer off and went for a run. I don’t think you can try to write, the same way you can’t try to be happy. It’s an organic thing, inside us, that either comes or doesn’t.
The hard part is trusting that even when the words don’t come, they will.
Eventually.
So, I didn't write this, but someone pretty important to me did. And since I'm having such trouble with my novel lately, this really helped. I'm just going to be patient now -- when the words want to write themselves, they will.
To CG: Thanks for helping. <3
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