The Gift

This is the season for contemplating gifts.  What we plan to give someone we love, what we hope we'll be given as well.

I once read that the purpose of life is simple--we must discover our gift, hone it, and then give the gift back to life.  We must share what we've been given, whether that's a gift for painting, for parenting, for creating pottery or delicious meals.  My gift is for story, writing and telling them.

As we move toward the New Year of 2012, I hope you spend some time contemplating your innate gifts and new ways you can discover to share.

Time Off

One of my favorite chapters in Lawrence Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit--an excellent writer's guide, older but not outdated by any means--traces Block's protracted "time off" from writing. He owned and worked in an art gallery, and at once point took a hiatus from writing that lasted a number of months.

I rarely let a day pass without putting fingers to the keyboard and/or pen to paper. Today is one of those days. I've done a good bit of revision lately, my own and for/with other writers. Time for a recharge from all that revision. There's a big difference between an intentional break and writer's block. But for now I'm not going to describe the difference except to say the first provides rest and the second stresses.

I'll let you know what written fruit the day bears next time.