Marion Dane Bauer on Letting Go

Writer, teacher, wise woman Marion Dane Bauer has long been an inspiration to me. In this blog post she writes about the difficulties of letting go--knowing what it is you need to let go, and when. I've been in that place of not knowing, of ending up worrying a single piece of writing for far too long. If you keep nipping at the poor thing's heels, either you or the story are in danger of giving up from sheer exhaustion.Then again, I don't believe people who put a time limit on the life of a work in progress. As long as I have breath in me, and as long as I'm producing other work within more reasonable time-spans, why shouldn't I bring out that novel manuscript, or poem, or memoir, every few years? Maybe on one of those experimental days when I'm trying to figure out what to let go, I may find out that I've finally become the writer that particular story needs me to be!Here's to slow mastery, and the fine art of letting go.