reposting

I cannot recommend this post strongly enough. (Linked from Alexis Bass's blog, which you all should read!). I've heard Sarah Zarr's name before, haven't read any of her books but definitely will now. In this keynote address (notes by Candy Gourlay), Sarah Zarr talks about waiting and the creative life. Favorite quotes below, full post here.

"It's not about a book deal, a good review, a big advance. It's about a life."

"A creative life is engaging"

"Your creative work expands your world. It does not reduce you down to your screens and word counts."

And I think, reflecting back on my study abroad experience and the break I took from writing and the break I'm still kind of taking from blogging (I'm trying to come back, I promise!), that this is what I learned.

A creative life does not happen solely on the computer or in a work-in-progress. It happens in the world, living. And when that creative life explores the world and grows, writing becomes way more than book-deal-book-deal-book-deal. Which was the trap mindset I'd fallen into. Writing becomes something deeply personal, something that persists beyond rejection or restructuring: because writing is the way you see and experience the world, not the way you want the world to see you.