Columbus, Mississippi

William Faulkner said if you want to understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.

Kafka said a writer who is not writing is a monster courting insanity.

Every writer who has ever lived will tell you writing is hard, and if it’s not hard you should keep pushing until it becomes so.

Every time you sit down to write, you’re willingly walking into an impenetrable forest, knowing you might be eaten by the creatures of the dark, hoping you will stumble upon a fantastical beast which may — with enough sweat, blood, and determination — allow you to cast a noose over its fire-breathing snout and drag it back for the world’s delight.

There is the writing you do for money and the writing you do for yourself. Confusing the two is a recipe for misery. But refusing to enter the forest at all, lurking on the periphery and selling tickets to the masses, is a travesty from which a writer cannot — and should not — recover.

You want to write? Then write. Write what’s in front of you, and when you’re finished, go in search of the dark deep. At the end of the day, the legacy you leave is your own.

Make it worth the life you trade.

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About this image

Water stands in a Mississippi swamp near the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway between Columbus, Mississippi and West Point, Mississippi. (Photo by Carmen K. Sisson/Cloudybright)

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Carmen K. Sisson tagged Columbus, green, landscape, Mississippi, trees, water, writing