Share your work

there’s more where that came from

“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.” - Annie Dillard

These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.

This is one of my treasured quotes about writing. It reminds me of sitting at the water’s edge as a kid, digging holes in the wet sand and trying to dip deeper only to be foiled again and again as water filled up the space I had just excavated. 

Dillard reminds us it’s like that with writing and with our creative work. As we share our work we are wise to remember that there is always more coming – more words, more brush strokes, more ideas. More more more. The nature of the work we care about is abundance.

I love to share the quote above, but I rarely include the following sentences:

“Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

Ten minutes a day on your project. It’s a practice that keeps the faucet running and reminds us again and again that there is enough for today and tomorrow too. Ten minutes a day is the way we let the work flow. When you feel your hands contract around what you create, that’s the moment to release it. Less grip, more flow – ten minutes at a time.

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