Courage to Write

Eating s**t sandwich is a picturesque metaphor Elizabeth Gilbert used to describe the years she spent writing but not getting published.  It captures the courage it takes to embrace a creative journey And reminds courage is not an absence of fear but moving forward with fear in tow.  Courage also means the willingness to feed on s**t sandwich in achievement of our goals.  

In that interview, she tacitly invites us to dine on that delectable cuisine that many authors embraced as staple food.  To those who express that they are afraid that their ideas have been explored before she reminds them that we have more than forty thousand years of written work.  Don’t stop before trying, her advice goes; don’t lurk in the shadows.  Show up and throw your lot in the mix...

It is a valuable advice.  Although we may not be the next Hemingways, we are indeed obliged to throw our piece in the mix.  Bearing in mind that there are a lot of gifted writers out there, publish with knowledge that we may not get the attention we seek.  However, the courage to write and publish is more important than getting recognition.

Number one, it validates our commitment.  What do writers do?  They write.  Each attempt, or each repetition, as James Clear states, reinforces our identity as writers.  This self-nurtured identity is vital and has to be nurtured.  

Number two, with availability of easy outlets like blogging, not trying to publish is not something we want to live with.  Dan Pink, in his book on regrets, tells us the biggest regret people suffer from is not trying.  Trying, for the purpose of this discussion, provides a badge, the badge of being not read, a kind of step in a hero’s journey of eating tons of sh***t sandwiches.

Personally, I have Adsense as the vendor of this delectable cuisine, this s**t sandwich.  I blog and follow it up to find out 0 people have read it.  Fortunately for me, however, Adsense has other sandwiches on its menu. 

 Occasionally, I find out that 2 or maybe 3 people have read my work.  Now that Sandwich is much better.

I do send out emails to the authors whose work inspired me to blog.  I have gotten a response or two - now that is like dessert.  It is both very rare and very tasty. 

Would not have happened if I did not throw my stuff in the mix.  I have to remind myself to do that (try) more often!