When I invite authors to participate in Three Questions & a Cover, I’m as eager as anyone to read their answers. There is probably a writer somewhere who understands this crazy profession / lifestyle / obsession / madness. Most of us are as confused about it today as we were the first time we put a word on paper; we’re just confused about different things now.
And then I re-read Dinty W. Moore’s book The Mindful Writer and I get to his Four Noble Truths for Writers and I’m able to breathe. It all makes sense for a nanosecond.
But my brain jumps in and I’m confused again. Still…a moment of clarity is better than none, right? (Yes, it is. No need to think about the answer.)
With Mr. Moore’s permission, I’m sharing those shining truths with you here.
THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS FOR WRITERS
- The writing life is difficult, full of disappointment and dissatisfaction.
- Much of this dissatisfaction comes from the ego, from our insistence on controlling both the process of writing and how the world reacts to what we have written.
- There is a way to lessen the disappointment and dissatisfaction and to live a more fruitful writing life.
- The way to accomplish this is to make both the practice of writing and the work itself less about ourselves. To thrive, we must be mindful of our motives and our attachment to desired outcomes.
That’s everything we need to know, isn’t it? You can breathe now. Just breathe.
For more about Dinty W Moore and his writing, you can click here to visit his website.
