Need some encouragement? The blog “Letters of Note” offers a real boost to creative people of all stripes.
We’ve all heard the stories about how this famous author got dozens of rejection letters before “making it”, or that artist suffered from a creative block. But this blog makes these old saws real — in the form of a peek at their actual correspondence.
Below, a telegram sent by one of my heroines, writer and humorist Dorothy Parker. If this doesn’t express how I feel when nothing I write seems right, nothing does.
But then, as if in answer to poor Dorothy, there is this pep-talk from Pixar animator to stay the course when these feelings of “stuckness” come up. In his opinion, having the persistence to slog through the hard times the only way to get to “the zone” where the good stuff is:
(You can read the rest of the blog post at Lettersofnote.com here.)
When you’re stuck on that novel, design problem, blog post or second act, it’s good to know not only that successful artists have all been where you are, but that the blocks are not signals to stop, or that our talent is deficient (as we so often take them for) but simply a necessary, if painful, part of the process.
If Dorothy Parker had known then what we know about her now, she might not have worried so much.
But you do know. So keep on going.
And if you have any doubt, just read a few more of these letters.
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