The Edge of Nowhere

My friend Krell helped refocus my brain when he e-mailed in response to our MELDAR®* reading of "U and I" a list of four things that makes us happy:

1 - Working (writing), which requires consistency;
2 - Completing, which requires discipline;
3 - Publishing, which requires risk-taking and boring through failure; and
4 - Growing, which (happily) requires reading, speaking to readers and writers, exchanges and support of other writers and, ultimately (back to 1:) Working.

And in response to all of Nicholson Baker’s "anxious psychological caterwauling" in U and I, Krell says the whole point of the book comes down to a fear of failure. And he offers this advice to Baker, which I'm stealing and applying to myself: "Shut up and write, man."

*MELDAR, again = Multiple Erics Long Distance Association of Readers

// posted by eba @ 11:36 AM