The stuff you write today

May not be the best you have in you
And yes it may even be really, really bad.
The pen makes no guarantees,
No assurance of quality
No fail safe strategy for a compelling story-
Just a promise
That once on the page
Your ethereal thoughts would have
Found brick and mortar residence in the form
Of sentences-
Sentences that may evoke
Mind numbing boredom
Or deep, near-telepathic inspiration.
The stuff you write today
May not be the best you’ve ever written
And indeed that is not the point.
Your work as a writer
Is to make something tangible, palpable
And indeed fallible
Out of the endless virgin fields of thought
And possibility that exist only in your mind
Where they can inspire (or bore)
No one.
It may even be slightly disappointing
To see in black and white
What was Technicolor and expansive in your mind,
Discouraging to not be able to
Write as clearly as you’d like,
Frustrating to find yourself in the maddening loop
Of waffling and repetition-
You may find all these things and more today as you write,
Piling up as evidence as to why
You should stop.
Don’t listen-
Write anyway.

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