For me this time, just after the holidays is like a hiatus, a time of blank diary pages and silent telephones. Everyone has left Cape Town or so it seems to me. In fact to judge by the roads, everyone has come to Cape Town from all over the country. But this influx of visitors only means that I stay at home rather than driving anywhere, because driving is so stressful. The other day we traveled to Fish Hoek so slowly that we were overtaken by a man walking next to a toddler on a tricycle.
During this very peaceful period, before the world wakes up and gets back to work again, I should be getting down to work myself and doing some serious writing. I have been somewhat discouraged lately, because I have not been very successful in getting work published, but I have just read a very inspiring article written by a writer with a similar problem. She complained to a more successful friend who gave the following advice. "Don't aim to get your work accepted. Aim to get 100 rejection slips" You have to work very hard to do this, but you have a very good chance of succeeding and you also have definitely increased your chances of getting an acceptance.
Writers, particularly poets, should remember that we are not in this game for the money. No one makes a living out of writing verse. Neither are we in it for the glory and fame. I know dozens of poets living nearby, talented, gifted poets, but none of my other friends have heard of them.
So why do we write stories and compose poems? We write, just because we love to write.
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