We’re kicking around the idea of posting our suggested gifts for writers. And that has me thinking of one gift that keeps on giving…and it’s a gift you can only give yourself.
Time for writing.
Yesterday was my birthday, and I did something I haven’t done in a while but need to. I not only wrote 250 words on my latest short story, but I made a commitment to myself. I am going to keep writing 250 words a day on my fiction. No matter how much I don’t want to at times. No matter how crappy it is at times. It doesn’t matter.
What matters is the commitment. The disciple. The time set aside to do something for myself. The self-love. Because for me, as for most writers I know, writing is the one thing I can’t not do. It’s my passion. It’s who I am. It’s what I love to share with the world. It’s my gift.
And to share that gift with others, and to use it to create my own joy, I need to do the one thing for myself that no one else can give me: time in the chair, in front of the page, pen in hand.