Some days – sometimes many days or weeks or months – you are going to awaken, and you’ll be more tired than or just as tired as when you went to bed. Everything in you argues with the alarm. You wonder how it’s 5:30 a.m. already. You wonder why you set the alarm for such an early hour, then remember you are trying to create a space in which you can do your work. Even so, you struggle not to throw the alarm against the wall. You argue with the voice that says to turn off the alarm and to pull the covers over your head.
Writing Life
Taking the Edge Off
Some weeks, much of my writing is done for others. By the end of those weeks, I begin to feel edgy. Writing for others may bring some satisfaction, but it’s writing for myself – writing that may or may not be shared publicly – that brings it wholly.
13 Tips for Aspiring Writers
A few weeks ago, I was asked if I had any tips for aspiring or new writers. Two things immediately came to mind: read a lot and work with a mentor. I then decided to work on a list because I knew two tips weren’t nearly enough. [Read more…] about 13 Tips for Aspiring Writers
View Everything as an Experiment
I’m sometimes asked how I deal with failure or how I keep moving forward when I struggle with perfectionism. One of the tricks is to keep a forward mindset as well as an other-minded one. The other, to borrow a phrase from Paul Jarvis, is to “view everything as an experiment.”
Writing toward Something and Something Else
The words do not come easily this morning. I am exhausted, weary even. I don’t want to sit in front of my laptop and try to compose something; I want to crawl back into bed and pretend I don’t have responsibilities. I don’t want to write when I’m in this mood, but I know better. I know better than to give into despondency. I know to fight it. I’m a writer, and writers write.
***
I trust if I continue to write, if I marshall past this emotion, I will get to something. Maybe I’ll even get to something else. I will have an “encounter,” as Paul Celan says. I will meet the self that isn’t encumbered by daily life and isn’t an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist. I know this. Even so, everything in me rages against the attempt. I feel a tension with the words and with myself. Everything is a bit sideways. I want the world to realign.
I know, though, that realignment begins by writing one word then another. “Bird by bird,” Anne Lamott says. That’s why I sit down. I write. I write the one bird, then I write another. I keep writing about those birds until I find something and something else.
***
The day and its responsibilities order me away from my laptop and toward what is on the day’s agenda. I may not feel ready for the day, but I’ve written. I’ve written my birds. I’ve attempted to have an encounter. For now, that will have to be enough.
Image: Dr Phil (CC BY NC SA 2.0)
The Beginning is Enough
On the days the words don’t come easily, you have two choices: you can whine about the fact, or you can get to work. If you’re in the former group, I give you permission to wail about the difficulty for two minutes. You’re not going to get anything done until you do. I know. I’ve been there, so go. Cry, scream, or swear for the next two minutes then come back. Are you back? Good. Now you’re ready to join the latter group, the one that yells “This is Sparta!” and gets to work.