With a pad of paper in your lap, ink pen in hand, you scrawl your thoughts onto paper with a passion-filled fury, well into the wee hours of the night. The next day, or perhaps weeks or months later, you rip up page after page, shred it into tiny pieces, turning it into an irreplaceable failure. You feared the worst, nobody would ever understand your story, so you made it disappear. Right?

I know. I know all too well. I’ve sat up with crystal clear clarity, writing the best story ever, only to no longer have the feeling that I had that night (or day),  convincing myself to toss away pages of my own thoughts that I may never be able to replace.

I write what I think. I write what I feel. I write my stories, and I am writing books. I tell people, strangers, that I am writing books. Moments later, and only for a split second, I ask myself, you said what? Repeat that. Mary, what did you say? Then I sit down, as I am now, and I write. No fear…none at all.

What have I learned at this early stage in my writing career? The biggest obstacle to writing anything is yourself. Once you get beyond your self-imposed thorns, brambles, and smoke screens – mainly in the form of time barriers, you can, must, and should write!

There is one freedom that is still distinctly free, the imagination and passion running through your own head. It is up to you to make it or waste it.

Mary Humphrey

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