Give It All Give It Now – A Lesson in Writing
For Christmas, my parents got me this beautifully illustrated and absolutely inspiring book by Annie Dillard entitled Give It All Give It Now: One of the Few Things I Know about Writing. The book is a simple, honest set of instructions that include “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.” and “Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive.” I couldn’t have better advice for writing or for life.
Reading this book and then, in one of those odd twists of activity that come our way, watching Julie and Julie last night, I find myself in the breath of writing again. Something about the book and the film (and probably the new year) have convinced me that I need to write every day no matter what. So here, in “print” I commit myself to blogging every day for the next year, just as Julie Powell did. I won’t be cooking my way through anything, but I hope to keep the blog focused on three specific topics – writing, reading, and teaching. Of course, I expect other thoughts will crop up, but I feel like I need to have this space as the start of my regimen each day. And because I know you guys will be reading, I can make myself write here and then hopefully this routine will spill over into other writing.
Meanwhile, I am going to hold onto this spark of inspiration and give it all now. No more waiting for the perfect schedule or the chance to have more time. This is the year, this is the day, this is the moment.
