My friends know that I keep a sticky note attached to my computer monitor. It reads, What Is This For?  It’s a simple but effective (if annoying) reminder for me not to get all wrapped up and worried about every darn aspect of the writing, researching, publishing life. It is too impossible to control.

I talked this week with a couple different emerging writers trying to suss this out for themselves. I boringly told them to try to figure out what the writing is for in their lives. That this would help them make all kinds of decisions.

After the second such conversation, I went back through my pictures of Poster Girl’s launch and was reminded so completely what this historical writing is for me. It is the discovery of new meaning in the past, how it relates to now, and sharing that with interested others. That’s what it’s for. Here’s a little more on that topic.