I Dream of an Eagle

Take Joy by Jane Yolen

Anthony Burgess once said that the dream seldom survives the first paragraph.

And Edith Wharton, quoting an old French proverb, wrote, "I dream of an eagle, I give birth to a hummingbird."

All writing is about that gap—no, that chasm—between expectation and final product. A veritable Grand Canyon. It is the very thing that induces writer's block.

I say that we writers should just expect that disappointment, not be surprised by it. Expect it, sidestep it, move on.