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It's A Miracle by: Lynn Colwell 'I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.' -- Anna Quindlen, Living Out Loud. When aspiring writers tell me they lack time to write, I pose 'The Miracle Question'¯: Let's say you go to sleep tonight and during the wee hours, a miracle occurs. When you wake up, everything that has been sucking time from your day and driving you crazy has miraculously evaporated and you have as much time as you want to write. How much time would that be? What has fascinated me as I've asked this of a dozen people, is how little time they ultimately realize it will take to satisfy what they claim to be their heart's desire. 'Ah,'¯ most muse quietly, not believing, but wanting to, that a miracle could really take place, 'enough time to write.'¯ I can hear the smile in their voices. (I mostly coach over the phone). They usually begin by enthusing how, given the chance, they'd start writing and never stop. I question them. 'Assuming you're awake 16 hours a day, you're saying you want to spend every moment writing?'¯ That usually stops them. 'Hmmm, well, now that I think about it, I guess not.'¯ A little more probing generally leads to the realization that an hour or two a day, perhaps a morning, would feel like enough. If they could devote only sixty minutes out of '1
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