How many times this week have you admonished yourself for not writing enough? We’ve all heard about the famous authors who wrote every day for hours on end, who stuck to rigid word-count or page-count quotas. Forget those authors. At least, forget their torturous processes. Go easy on yourself. Know that, as you live your life, you are constantly gathering material. That day you flopped on the couch to binge-watch some guilty pleasure and let dust gather in the corners of your living room while dishes languished in the sink? That day is a poem, a short story, the jumping-off point for a novel. Give yourself extra credit for reading, listening to music, going out into the world, tending your relationships, tending your garden. Let your cup fill. Let your fields lay fallow. Don’t wrestle the words out of yourself before they are ready to come. Instead, enjoy the generative process of living your life and, when inspiration strikes, be ready to get to work.
—Diane Goettel, executive editor, Black Lawrence Press