Scrap 008: One True Sentence

You may have realised that my last newsletter was more about me trying to work than the cormorant trying to catch fish. The weeks that have passed since that letter may have helped you to realise that I'm still trying, still bobbing around on the water, still diving deep and coming up fishless.

I don't want everything I send you to be about how hard creative work can be at times. But, at times when creative work feels almost impossible, it's hard to think about anything else. Feels being the operative word.

The human brain (my human brain) has a tendency to make things feel harder than they actually are. To assign them too much importance and weight. To overestimate the difficulty of the task and underestimate itself and its abilities (myself and my abilities).

Things are rarely as hard, or heavy, or important as they may seem.

I'm continually reminded of this by tiny, weightless things — seemingly insignificant moments that are actually important. A rainbow dancing across the spray of a fountain in the park, a ladybird landing on my arm and hitching a ride to wherever we’re going, those few breathless seconds when the sky cycles yellow-orange-red-pink-purple-black.

Nothing is as impossible as it can feel, least of all writing. A few days ago, I came across a quote that reminded me just how easy writing can be.

“Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” — Ernest Hemingway

I read that quote again and again, and I have read it every day since. I have written before and I am (finally) writing now.

All I have to do is write one true sentence.

The truest sentence I know.

Things are easy as we allow them to be.

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Scrap 007: I'll Keep Trying