Humility

“All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.” -  Saul Bellow

Fairly frequently, I will find myself in a social situation where a friend will introduce me to someone, and say, "Lucinda is a writer." I downplay it. Somewhere along the way, I learned to feign modesty, as if the mere fact that I admit I am a writer will make me look boastful.

There are three problems with this. First, I am a writer. It's no big deal. I am also a nurse. If someone said, "Lucinda is a nurse," I wouldn't do the sideways glance and claim I am not really. Can you imagine if you were a hospitalized patient and your nurse said she wasn't really a nurse? What the heck is she doing in your room with a syringe filled with pain medicine if she isn't a nurse? And what the heck is it that I am doing with pen and paper and computer and my butt firmly grounded in my chair for hours every day if it isn't writing? And if I am writing, then ergo, I am a writer.

Second, there is some sort of misplaced prestige in being a writer. It doesn't make sense. I think we should worship teachers, nurses, daycare workers, garbage collectors, and fire fighters, but writers? It doesn't make any sense.

Third, I have a problem with false modesty. The bottom line is, even though I don't think that writing is a noble profession, I certainly don't have to deny I am a writer. Golda Meir said, "Don't be so humble; you're not that great."  She's right.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what I do, so much as who I am.

Seeking Balance

The feature article of the May/June issue of Writer's Digest is "101 Best Websites for Writers." Normally I would welcome this information, but not now; I am over-saturated with technology and the non-creative side of writing. The last few weeks have been devoted to my publishing contract, filling in details for the marketing department, finding a photographer, revisions and non-book related writing. Plus my book, although important to me, does not satisfy my prose needs. So, this week I ordered five more Mary Oliver books, and pre-ordered her next one (due in September). Her words keep me in the center of what it means to be alive and to be a writer.

I will file away this issue of Writer's Digest for future reference. If I need a diversion, I can check out creativewritingprompts.com. For now, I am shunning diversions - I need focus and equilibrium. Apparently, I am not alone in my quest for balance, and equally apparent is that the Internet is not the only distraction. Euripides wrote about it in 400 BC. He must have been a writer. I wonder how he would have survived our cyber-world.

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."  Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)

The Grace of Writing

"When we write about what matters to us most, words will take us places we don't want to go. You begin to see that you will have to say things you don't want to say, that may even be dangerous to say, but are absolutely necessary." - Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace


Last weekend I attended a mindfulness meditation retreat. It was an exquisite forty-eight hours of beauty, good food and blissful silence. Returning home, I avoided the bells, whistles, and traps of life, for at least a day. Now, they are quieting creeping in, and I am applying counterbalance with meditation, gratitude, and other spiritual practices.

Writing is one of these practices. Since the bulk of my writing is non-fiction, hepatitis C stuff, I turn to haiku, poetry, journal-writing, and creative essay in order to reach that deep inner knowing, the place of grace. Grace is when words flow, when truth is so utterly apparent that it can be nothing else.

There are other ways to access these places. Reading is one. Meditation is another. But, I am a writer, and nothing satisfies me as much as pen and paper - not even in this electronic age.

More True Confessions

“I love my computer solitaire. I could, without thinking for half a second, tell you about a half dozen writers I know who are completely addicted. Computer solitaire—it’s the dirty little secret of the literary world.” - Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer

Oh thank goodness for the brave writers who tell the truth. Last month I told you about pajamas. This week, it is computer solitaire. Actually, the earth shattering news is not that I play it, rather than the fact that I had to give it up. It was becoming an obsession; I couldn’t quit unless I won. It was digging into my sleep and I was waking up late, a bit listless. I gave it up last year by actually REMOVING the program from my computer. It was the only way. I didn’t go through any withdrawal.

Every once in awhile, I find myself sitting at my husband’s computer, moving cards around on the screen…