Writing, like Music, is a powerful tool

In reading first lines, I have come face to face with the reality that some writers "got it", and some don't, and then there's this other class of writers that write so beautifully that it's hard to believe the power they manage to express in one sentence. Chaim Potok's first sentences are infinitely more powerful than almost anyone else's. This distressed me for a minute--I can't write like that, and the harder I try, the worse I write. Then I talked to Tim (he is so wise) who reassured me that my voice is sufficient for the stories I have to tell, and if I'm writing with what Ueland says is "Honesty" or sincerity, my writing is good for what I'm doing.

Then I picked up Douglass Adams. I'm still reading only first lines. He managed to make me laugh in only ten words. How's that for power. No, it didn't have the beauty that Chaim Potok had, but it had the same power to move me to feel. And, frankly, I prefer to laugh than to cry.

So there you go.

I don't have to be Chaim Potok to have my writing worthwhile.

Goodness--I don't even like to read the stuff Potok wrote. It's good. It's powerful. It's so powerful at stirring emotions that it's too much for me, and I can't handle it. Why would I want to write stuff I can't stand to read?