I am so grateful to be a full time writer. This is my third month and I guess you could say the honeymoon phase was short. Being able to write all day instead of 2 hours in the wee morning had been something I’d dreamt about. Prayed for. Set goals to achieve. And it happened. I’d imagined that words would fly from my fingertips. And they did for the first week–12,000 words in 2 days! But I’d forgotten–writing is hard work. Fun. It’s my passion. But hard work just the same.
Yesterday, I felt defeated with my plot, which segued into questioning my path. I reached for my tattered and tabbed The Writers Journey for a quick review and plot fix.
But I turned to a section I’d hadn’t read before. It was the conclusion. Vogler wrote about a hike in Big Sur that should have taken him an hour. Instead it became a life or death struggle against the elements. He was lost, wet, cold, hungry, and it was getting dark. At this “black moment” he heard a clear voice tell him to “trust the path.” The only path he saw was an ant path which he followed. It widened to a rodent path, then a dear trail, then the forest trail which took him to the road and safety. Pretty amazing. But what really it home for me, what I needed to read with this final paragraph, was to trust the path. I’m sharing it with you because we are all on a journey, weather it’s writing, medicine, teaching, or dog sitting, it’s laid out uniquely for us.
Find me!