A man I met at a party years ago just reached out about writing coach services. He’s come up with a solid and timely idea for a book. Since he’s laid up with a broken leg, he’s suddenly got the bandwidth to get a jump on the project. In short, he’s got a writing opportunity.
Challenges, whether a broken leg or a pandemic, can either throw you for a loop or provide unexpected opportunity—make that unexpected writing opportunity. I love the story of Anna Sewell, born in 1820, which The Writer’s Almanac recently shared. At the age of 14, she sustained an injury to both ankles that would hamper her ability to walk for the rest of her life. Horses became her mode of transportation.
When her ankle injuries wound up confining her to her house at the end of her life, she penned Black Beauty, which would immediately become a bestseller and wind up selling 50 million copies. Narrated by the horse, which Sewell based on one of the horses from her childhood, the novel is subtitled “The Autobiography of a Horse, Translated From the Original Equine.”
The Writer’s Almanac reports that:
“The novel is full of detailed passages about how to care for horses and it was largely thanks to Sewell that several laws against the mistreatment of horses were established in England.”
The realization that you can turn misfortune or aloneness into a chance to channel your creativity—and maybe change the world with your message—doesn’t hit automatically. The knee-jerk response is to focus on what’s missing, on what you’ve lost. But those automatic reactions don’t have to dictate.
If you can’t change a specific set of circumstances, then you have to accept them. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of your world needs to stay static. Limitations on one front may just provide the opening to explore a whole new world. Could this be your time to break out of your mold and into your creative brain? Could this be your writing opportunity? I hope so.
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