Superman's Return

Even with e-publishing and indie publishing, a writer can spend a lot time waiting for the next thing to happen. Waiting to hear back from the editor, waiting for the reviews, waiting for the numbers. Maybe it isn’t intentional, but how easy to turn what you are waiting for into something it isn’t. How easy in the quiet continuity of expectation to turn anything or anyone into your own private Superman to save you from the villains gathering in your idleness. You’re a smart writer and mature writer, and you don’t believe in Superman, but you’ve seen the villains and you’ve heard their plans. All the villains are plotting the end of the world. If they have their way there will come a day when all creation ends in a “No,” and all that can be said “Yes” to are the orders of these overlords whose only desire is to see you live another day of forced labor.

You’d be a fool not to believe in these villains. Why, it’s just what they want, for they need time to hatch their evil plans, time you seem to have as you wait to hear from this one or that one. You’d try to warn to world, but whenever you do you sound like a madman. These villains are fantastic at staying hidden. You see one in the mirror, turn – and he’s gone. And yet as you lay down for sleep you hear them whispering their plans for a world no one would ever choose to live in.

Who better than Superman to end this nightmare? Superman believes in these villains. Without them, he wouldn’t exist. His powers mean absolutely nothing without an enemy to use them against. Some days it even seems as if Superman is in league with these villains, sustaining them for his own usefulness.

What a terrible thought. Terrible enough that perhaps you might even stop waiting. Such a distracting way to live: life nothing but a string of glances at your watch. It’s certainly no way to write. Yet another good reason to return to your desk. Here you settle into the dream of writing, here you find your story again and remember that nothing can arrive if it has never left.

Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion. "A book to keep nearby whenever your writer's spirit needs feeding." Deb Caletti.

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