Writing excuses

While working on an article for my newsletter, I remembered the story of a journalist named Terry Anderson. He had been kidnapped by militants and held in captivity for over six years. During that time he had no access to pen or paper, but he managed to write over 30 poems by repeating them and memorizing them. He was only able to write them down after his release.

I can remember writing poems a bit like this in my younger years. Except there, I was just taking a stroll around a pond and sighing into the air as I thought profound thoughts. When I returned to my house, I wrote the words down.

Anderson’s story is pretty much a giant F-U to any writer who tries to make an excuse not to write. What are you going to say to that? “Oh, but he had gobs of time to write in between his torture sessions.”