By Nancy Jensen, Associate Professor, Bluegrass Writers Studio
Some days writing is like having a splinter. You know it's there--a scene, say. You can feel it throbbing, just under the surface. And you can almost see it, maybe just one end poking up, but still it's but enough to make you think, "No problem. I'll have this out in a snap."
And so you get the tweezers and start prodding, pinching. Soon you're scraping. Then you're digging. But nothing.
You try to ignore it, persuading yourself that it will simply work its way out naturally, but that's no good because you can't do anything else until you get the thing out. It takes up your whole mind.