I’m convinced that Poets & Writers compiled their most recent Inspiration Issue just so I would renew my subscription. What else could explain the reason I am currently reading the magazine cover-to-cover, something I don’t think I’ve done with any other magazine subscription. At first, I thought that the magazine’s arrival was perfect timing for my impending travel to Georgia for the holidays. Then, on the plane, I realized that it was perfect timing as my last issue of my previous subscription.
Melissa Madenski’s Why We Write article reminds me that I’m lucky, as a writer, to benefit creatively from tragedy as much (usually more) than from happy times:
I don’t know what made me persist, what made me rise on icy mornings, shake myself awake and perch by the coffeemaker. When people said I was disciplined, I knew the truth. It would take more discipline to stop writing than to continue.
Then there’s Frank Bures’s “Inner Space: Clearing Some Room for Inspiration” with a take on technology’s infringement on the writer’s creative space that is not accusatory, but rather empathetic, gentle. With humor and just the right amount of personal anecdote, Bures presents a very real obstacle to the issue’s subject of inspiration without pointing fingers or damning Google.
I suppose I’ll get back to finishing the issue, and my internal struggle of to renew or not to renew.
I’ve heard such great things about that issue, but I have yet to see it myself. You’ve inspired me to get resourceful. Can’t wait to read it, and can’t wait to get caught up on the rest of your blog, which I just discovered today. Great job!