If You've Lost That Loving Feeling (Sydney Salter)

One of my longest writing friends recently confessed that she had lost the passion for writing--and she was letting it go. 

A writing life is so tough. Years of effort, countless rejections, little understanding from non-writerly family and friends. Sometimes the whole endeavor feels like one never-ending struggle--for what?

Sometimes it's hard to find that loving feeling towards our work.

I recently read Passing by Nella Larsen, a Harlem Renaissance author who wrote in 1929. The story has been made into a film streaming on Netflix, and while the movie is good, the book is SO MUCH BETTER. I immediately sought out her other book--Quicksand--published in 1928. The main character struggles to find her place in a world that wants to create strict definitions--she's neither black, nor Danish. I finally understood the term intersectionality in a visceral way. 

Nella Larsen didn't publish any other books. As she struggled to complete a third manuscript, she instead focused on her nursing career. Saving lives is noble, of course. But making people think in new ways a hundred years later? Oh, how I wish I could read more of her perspective on life and people. The stories aren't perfect, but that doesn't diminish the power of her perspective.

Writing is hard. Often unrewarding. And it takes so much self-motivation to keep on keeping on. But each of us who is so inclined to take up a pen and tell a story has something important to say. So if you're losing that loving feeling toward writing, please find a way back to the joy. 

The world needs the stories that only you can tell.