Friday, February 24, 2012

Writing or Wandering

Here's what I've noticed about myself and writing.  The more I write, the more I want to write.

When I stop writing, the sand blows in, and it takes a great deal of strength to hope that it could rain in a desert.

When I stop writing, it doesn't take long before I start to believe I'll never have anything meaningful to say.  To anyone. Ever.

If I continue "not writing" it doesn't take much longer to believe that I have never had anything meaningful to say.

Not then, not now, not ever.  Writing well feels like finding an Oasis: a temporary, fragile place blessed by the water of inspiration, just as likely to be reclaimed by the desert of self-doubt and lack of ideas.

It's a noisy, howling desert, whipping words off the page before I even have time to finish forming them in my head.  It's blank, and boring, and seemingly endless.  Nobody wants to wander in that space.

I wish I could learn to saddle my camel with enough inspiration to last me til I get to that next place of creative profusion, where words flow like rivers.

Better yet, I wish I knew how to move to the writing rain forest.

Anybody know how to get a ticket?

2 comments:

  1. It's not about saddling the camel with inspiration. It's about knocking off fiddling with the saddle straps and packing and unpacking the saddle bags, and just getting on the darn thing. ;)


    I know for me it's entirely a matter of volume. If I stop, the well dries up in a matter of days. But the more I write, the more I CAN write, and the more I need to.

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  2. I so appreciate your honesty. This phenomenon is so aptly described and brings me to a place of motivation. Maybe the trick is to write on anything at any time so the fuel continues to replenish.

    Love you!

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