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| Photo courtesy of Magpie Tales |
Janet threw down her pen in disgust. “Whatever made me think I could be a writer in the first place?” Her cat, curled up on the sofa, barely acknowledged her outburst.
“Just because I wrote a few short stories and dabbled a bit in poetry over the years, I suddenly thought I could write the next great novel?” Never mind that her friends had been reading her stories for years and encouraging her to write more and longer pieces. You’ve got the knack. You’ve got talent. You can do this!"
“Ha! What do they know? No, that’s not fair. They were probably just being nice, and who knows maybe they really enjoyed my scribblings but that doesn’t mean I’ve got any real talent."
While she was ranting to herself about her inability to put any coherent words down on paper, she glanced at a magazine lying on the table and saw a quote by someone whose name she didn’t recognize. It said “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self” by Cyril Connolly.
That struck a chord with Janet. "Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. I have been so worked up about trying to find the right plot, and the right storyline. What do people want to read?"
"Yeah, that counts for something, but it’s not everything. For a story to be good, you need to put yourself into it."
Finally! She put her pen and paper aside, and turned to her keyboard and began to write. This time from the heart.
Written for Magpie Tales.
