Princess, Angel, Soldier

A lovely writer who calls herself "The Princess of Procrastination" explained to me her trouble:

"I am sitting on my couch this morning as I do every morning, and wondering why I seem to have a phobia against picking up my pen." The Princess is writing her first book, an engaging, funny memoir about a loved one who died not long ago. She went on, "Maybe my problem is being overwhelmed by the many different directions my book could take. Maybe I can focus better if I decide what I should leave out."

I told her, write the book.

Last week, a writer I'll call Angel shared with me seven pages of beauty. Here was lyrical language, vivid imagery, tantalizing story, and characters that begged you to follow them in all their depth and intrigue. She'd written this six years ago. "It's a real problem. I don't write the same now. I'm not sure what my style change might do to my novel."

I told her, write the book.

A third writer, niether an angel nor a princess, had for thirty years harbored the unconventional memories of his years in Vietnam. He said he didn't know the first thing about writing, had kept these stories alive in his head, hadn't a clue how to revise them. Further, he suffered a life-threatening disability requiring daily management that would have stopped most people. This soldier plunked down his notebook fat with typed pages, stories he'd hammered forth day after day for weeks on end. There were glitches with tense-changes and many places needing work. But I said, "This is wonderful. You've done well."

Because he wrote the book.