Forget all those critics, I'm an artist!

I was happy to be the one reading excerpts from Brenda Ueland's book If You Want To Write in class today. It was like we picked a class just for me and my "overly sensitive" self. I was just in the library last night, and I chose to read some critical essays on Emily Dickinson rather than attempt writing my short story because I felt so inadequate of a story teller. Poetry is more up my ally, I've practiced that art enough that I feel entitled to be able to write it. But story telling is just something I never tried before. And there's so many darn good stories out there, and stories are SUCH an effective way to effect lives because something about them is memorable.

I feel like throughout school we've always had a list of criteria and an idea of what makes an A grade and what doesn't, so much that before we can listen to what that creative drive inside is itching to tell, we smother it with rules and confinements, until the inspiration doesn't even know how to breathe anymore.

So I think a little artistic rebellion is all I need. and it sort of helps to think of it as rebellion. I'll prove it to them I won't care what they have to say and I'll create despite this pressure to be perfect! There is so much joy and freedom in writing, and I'm so glad to have discovered that book along with many other artist friends who articulate the necessity and importance of freely writing as a form of expression and art.