Face the Page

“The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.” ~Alfred Kazin, Think, February 1963

Focus on the process, not the result. You spend a lot of time alone at your desk writing to hate the process of writing. If you are in it only to publish, you may want to reconsider your desire to be a writer. Enjoy the journey, savor the process, write what inspires you, what intrigues you, what entertains you.

“You can either set brick as a laborer or as an artist. You can make the work a chore, or you can have a good time. You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so in which you can find yourself.” —Anne Lamott