One of the struggles a writer faces (or anyone else with creative projects as part of their vocation) is the sense of futility. It is one of those temptations that comes in a kind of inner voice. Why not be old fashioned and just call it one of our demons? The Demon of Futility It can […]
Interruptions (The Writer’s Inner Life)
If you’ve been following this series, you know I’m posting on “The Writer’s Inner Life” on Mondays. If you have a calendar, you know that today is Tuesday. Labor Day was an interruption. It was a good one: some time hanging pictures in our new home with my wife, some time in a park with the […]
Fighting Inner Demons (The Writer’s Inner Life)
For a few posts now I’ve been exploring the writer’s inner life. Today this series of posts becomes all the more important to me: my kids have returned to school, so I am able to write full time. So, daily, I need to write. We’re all fighting inner demons And to write I have to defeat […]
Accidie — The Noontime Demon (The Writer’s Inner Life)
I’m working on making my working life happy and productive without having to punch a clock or meet institutional deadlines. So my advisors at the moment are the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Christians who moved out to the fourth century Egyptian desert for an isolated life of prayer. Sometimes they hit it straight out of the park, not just […]
Find Your Rhythm (The Writer’s Inner Life)
Having big chunks of time to work on a creative project is a gift. It also brings problems. How do you keep at work with no looming deadlines, no timecard to punch, and no boss? As I move fully into writing, speaking, and other independent work, I’m facing those challenges daily. Of course I’m facing them my […]