Fighting for It

Gray weather, gray moods. On the bright side, I've been trying to clean off my desk at work—partly by doing things that need to be done, partly by stacking everything else in a tidy procrastination pile—and came across a paper scrap that's been sitting here since, um, January.

I kept moving it around because it resonated with me and I didn't want to throw it away. It's a quote from author Eva Ibbotson, from her wonderful interview on the Just One More Book podcast. She's talking about the value of writing novels, especially for children, in which everything comes out all right in the end—even though reality rarely treats us so. She says this:

I find it quite difficult to maintain happiness. It has to be fought for. (4:10)

Totally.

Anyway, now that it's here on the blog, I'm going to recycle that scrap. Yes! Four more square inches of desk revealed!

Here's another gem from The Day I Became an Autodidact, by Kendall Hailey, apropos in a week in which I've decided I've done enough banging my head against the wall on one project and must work on something else for a while:

The truth is, I don't know how I am to go on writing at all, since I am pretty well convinced it's all excrement. But who knows, there is always the vague chance it's just shit. The only thing is, I'm going to have to ask soon and if anyone tells me it's anything but brilliant, I'll die. I type with one hand and hold my nose with the other, but at least I feel I'm getting something done. (p. 73)

That about says it.