However… when things are going well, I really *do* feel tapped by the muse.

Maybe the best way around this problem is to teach comp classes more like creative writing classes? Because on some level, what this guy seems to be saying is that the only way to write well is to be a writer, and the only way to be a writer is to always already have been one. That system feels too closed to be true. So maybe instead, it’s the daily journal and the book report that make you a writer? Are there ways to indoctrinate students with the state of *being* a writer rather than just the *activity* of writing?

Orland and Bayles, authors of Art & Fear, are less concerned with “successful” work (how does one measure that? intrinsically or extrinsically?), but would definitely agree with Atchity that one’s work is never finished.

And, like you, I find that comforting.

Also, like you, I’m trying to set aside some time even during the school year for writing. I suspect I’ll be faithful to my work until about Halloween, and then get overwhelmed with keeping up with school and family demands and sort of abandon it. That’ll be okay. Another idea from Orland and Bayles is that there is a difference between stopping and quitting. Sometimes, for various reasons, we have to stop our work — for day, week, month, season — to begin again later. That’s natural. It would be another thing entirely, though, to quit.