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Writing Is A Calling



Lesson 3 of Barbara Abercrombie's A Year of Writing Dangerously is best summed up by Elizabeth Gilbert's quote:

"I believe that - if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression - you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns... I was writing's most devotional hand-maiden. I built my entire life around writing."

                                                                         -- Elizabeth Gilbert


I was recently talking with some coworkers about my upcoming theater show and they asked, so this writing is what you do for a hobby? They know its not what I do for a living so its easy to apply labels and call something a hobby, but its what I do for a life.

 It's sort of hard to explain to a non-writer what it means to write, just as it is to explain to a non-runner what it is to run. This video below is the perfect example for runners. 


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  1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2013 at 6:18 AM

    I can relate. During the day I poured everything into teaching and made sure the children and I all enjoyed our time together and worked to end each day with satisfaction of a job well done.
    Once when I mentioned to a younger teacher that I was planning on retirement a few years in the future, she said, "But teaching is your life!"
    "No," I told her. "Teaching is what I do to support my life."

    ReplyDelete

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