Start where you are.
This is good advice, practical, logical ... and difficult.
When I think about where I want to be as a writer, I know it is far from where I am now. I want to be a poet, published and well-known. I want to be a writer, published and respected. These destinations seem as far as another world, a planet on the farthest side of a galaxy light-years away.
I worry. What if I never get to my destination? What if my writing is mediocre? What if I never reach book publication? Perhaps this is procrastination. If I don’t try, I won’t fail. I have excuses. But still I write. I write knowing that all I can do is start where I am and work.
It is practical. Writing practise will improve my skills. It is logical. Writing from where I am and who I am and what I know is the only beginning possible. It is difficult; but it is possible. Surely it is possible.
Daily, I show up at my blank page and write. Some days are flowing and fruitful. Some days are flowing and flawed. Some writing, upon second reading, objective reading, turns out to be crap, perhaps compost or fuel for another day. Some days soar. That’s the way it goes.
Reaching the planet of published poetry and prose is far off, but still I travel, dancing the light-years, pencil in hand.
Is it simply about the journey? Perhaps. And perhaps that alone is enough to justify the work.
