The Road Not Taken

It's been an interesting week, not the least in my writing. My work in progress continues to be an uphill struggle, each word a knock-down-grudge-match affair and, while challenging, not particularly fun. Into the midst of this came another book idea, one that I made note of and put aside, but which kept pushing its way to the front of my mind and which refused to be ignored. What to do? Do I continue to labor on the work in progress, or do I go with the flow and accept the new idea that wants to be written? Would I be giving in, taking the path of least resistance, or seizing an opportunity in the moment?

I was reminded of the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 


And I... put the work in progress aside and found a blank page. Better to be writing than struggling, particularly as (I reminded myself) I'm doing this for fun. I hope that following the road less traveled by will be fun, and indeed, make all the difference. I will let you know.