We come up with them all the time, don’t we? Reasons. Some good ones, some lame, for not getting on with the work, the difficult, enjoyable work of being a writer. Notice I’m not using that awful, dirty word, excuses. Kind of like the term, blocked, I’m not fond of the word, excuse, either.
We’ve all heard, or thought:
I don’t have anything to say that anyone would want to read.
My life is boring. I’m too boring to writing anything interesting.
I’m too bored to write. I’m tired. I’m just not feeling it.
I’d rather do something else. Yes. Anything but write, right?
I’m a writer, I think. I say I am. I think I am. But I’d rather
do almost anything but actually get to down to really writing.
Hey, I could straighten up my romantically outfitted writing desk
for an hour while my belly tightens into knots over the prospect
of actually sitting down and getting to work, right? Yes!
And my vinyl. Doesn’t my collection need an overdue alphabetizing?
Oh, look! Butterflies and puppies! Why is the sun already going down?
If we gave over to these tangent thoughts almost nothing would get written in the world of writing. All ideas begin from a zero point: from “no idea,” from “one day I was stumped, then then it hit me.” From that point, every little devil of a reason will inch way into preventing your victory, when you’ve completed that long thought of the story in your head you just couldn’t let go, when it's finally on paper, a story, poem, an idea you just had to get out into a world that needed it. We have to let the reality of that world you’re smothering with disbelief have some light, some air of belief.
Just a little. Begin with a little.
A little grows into a lot when you really want to let it.
Go write.
We’ve all heard, or thought:
I don’t have anything to say that anyone would want to read.
My life is boring. I’m too boring to writing anything interesting.
I’m too bored to write. I’m tired. I’m just not feeling it.
I’d rather do something else. Yes. Anything but write, right?
I’m a writer, I think. I say I am. I think I am. But I’d rather
do almost anything but actually get to down to really writing.
Hey, I could straighten up my romantically outfitted writing desk
for an hour while my belly tightens into knots over the prospect
of actually sitting down and getting to work, right? Yes!
And my vinyl. Doesn’t my collection need an overdue alphabetizing?
Oh, look! Butterflies and puppies! Why is the sun already going down?
If we gave over to these tangent thoughts almost nothing would get written in the world of writing. All ideas begin from a zero point: from “no idea,” from “one day I was stumped, then then it hit me.” From that point, every little devil of a reason will inch way into preventing your victory, when you’ve completed that long thought of the story in your head you just couldn’t let go, when it's finally on paper, a story, poem, an idea you just had to get out into a world that needed it. We have to let the reality of that world you’re smothering with disbelief have some light, some air of belief.
Just a little. Begin with a little.
A little grows into a lot when you really want to let it.
Go write.
