The better you can remember this, the more content you will feel in your writing career.
Here’s something I wrote on my Facebook page the other day on this topic:
You are the architect of your success or lack of success. Just like the spider contains all the thread to weave the web that will catch the flies to sustain her. You have enough thread inside you to tear the whole damn mess down and start over again right now. And the minute you remember this, everything will flow.
And here is something else I wrote on the topic of the writer as spider from The Writer’s Workout in chapter 193: Observe A Spider…
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work. —RITA MAE BROWN
You are the creator of your career. And like a spider, you weave web after web after web. Often your webs are woven secretly in the dark, so they don’t glisten with dew until the sun hits them. If you think this way, you can begin to understand the permanent and impermanent nature of your writing projects. How can you spin your latest writing projects into a blazing triumph so it won’t fall to pieces from neglect?
Your writing career is yours as long as you keep weaving, as long as you keep standing by your work, waiting patiently for results, as long as you keep tearing down the old strands in favor of fresher, stronger strands.
Spiders spin silk and writers spin words. Spiders make webs and writers create all kinds of content. And when you expand the concept of spider wisdom to include what writers can do with their platforms, you get an even more appropriate analogy.
I like to think that spiders are happiest when they are spinning silk and weaving their webs, just as writers tend to be happiest spinning words and weaving them into a variety of pieces. But I think it is simply the nature of spiders to spin and the nature of writers to write.
I don’t think the spider has an ego about what it creates; it just keeps going, as if its life depended on it (because, of course, it does). What would happen if you adopted the same attitude? Every chance you get, sneak up close to a spider and watch it. Watch it anchor each line and then dance itself around and around. Watch it dangle with gleeful industry and scurry into the darkest corner and curl into a tight ball. Watch it stand over its web and wait.
Think about how much power such a tiny creature can wield when it weaves together a web of fragile yet sticky thread to attract what it needs. Then throw all you’ve got back into whatever you are working on.
Photo by Mark Griffin
Comments on this entry are closed.
Great thoughts – we are the spider, and we’re catching readers in our fictional web. :+)