Monday, December 13, 2010

Elizabeth Edwards Passing & Not Giving Up

Two different things that I really want to meld together here into one coherent blog post...

Thing A - the passing of Elizabeth Edwards

Roughly a week ago, the estranged wife of Presidential wanna-be and dirtbag-is John Edwards succumbed in her fight with cancer. In May of last year I linked to and posted on an excerpt from her book and found myself pretty captivated by how she reacted to the hand she was dealt. Just after her death, I came across "Elizabeth Edwards Was the Right Kind of Woman" by Chris Jones on his Esquire blog. Good short writing, but in terms of Edwards herself... geesh, that's a rough go of it she had.

Thing B - don't give up

I found out about the Jones story on Edwards' passing from his twitter feed... which later had the following two posts:

"Elizabeth Edwards in Allendale came from a story I quit halfway through. Worst move of my career. Don't quit until the story quits on you."

"Seriously, I almost left the writing biz that week in South Carolina. In tears with my editor. Fuck me. Game could have changed right there."

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Intent isn't to say that Edwards terminal cancer (and other horrific things she faced) is the same as Jones struggling with a story, but I also don't think it trite to say they both feature the concept of not giving up.

In terms the writing thing... I've many a time struggled to get something on page and tried to follow the maxim of... you set a writing goal, slog away, and get something down that reaches your goal. The inspired times are great, but they're not always there and it's just as if not more important to carry on without inspiration around.

My soliloquy.