Confidence.

I was reading Ray Bradbury's introduction to that collection of 100 of his stories, and he said something very interesting about storywriting: "Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down."

This bold approach is so different from how I currently approach storywriting. I'm so tentative, it feels; so self-conscious. I don't have confidence that I know how or will be able to build my own wings, and that's definitely held me back--both in the past and in present ventures. And not just with storywriting, or even poetrywriting; but in life as well. But that's perhaps an observation best reserved for my other blog...

I do want to be a writer; the urge and, if I can be so brazen, the talent are there. I just lack confidence in my abilities, and I'm not entirely sure--other than by brute force and success--how I'll find it.

But I need to if I'm going to live that dream of being a writer, a real writer, and not shy away from it forever, never finding fulfilment in that not insignificant domain of my existence.

I also need, of course, to make more time for my writing (and my blogging...). But, then, time management has never come easily to me. I'd like to, and have even perhaps begun to, believe I'm making progress there. It's coming slowly, maybe, so it's hard to see at times. But I have made time for "Ponder," or whatever I'm calling it, if haltingly and in large leaps.

Although Bradbury seems to dismiss scheduling writing time, that seems to be what most writers suggest and is certainly worth trying. But when? Hm hm.