Getting it Right the First Time is Rarer than You Think
It’s a rare one who writes right the first time, every time. And I am not that rare one. I used to think a poem needed to work the first time written, or it was meant to be trashed. I thought the writing process that we learned about in grade school was for the masses and that genius afforded the real writers to just write once. I got it into my head that I couldn’t pursue writing because I was one of the masses and not the genius. Happily, I found that is not the case.
Ritual is Only Part of the Process
Through the years, I’ve read a lot about writing. Not the definitive list, but a good few books and articles, by some profoundly talented people. One common thread I noticed in the fabric of all writing stories, is that the best of them—of us, work at writing. We work to refine our skills, to keep up with current communication trends, and we invent new techniques along the way that suit the way we write.
And, there are the rituals; stories abound of writers who sit, sweat, fret, fume, gnash, gnaw, rant, writhe, meditate, moan, exercise, chant, eventually yielding to release and renewal, to re-insert balance and bliss into their writing life. Many that I’ve read about have ridden this frantic magic carpet, some regularly, only to return to sanity and civility, after having given birth to their next great work.
