The Write Stuff

Write! Right? It's easy! Just sit down and let it flow! Pour out the strings and streams of words from that bag of mush you call a brain onto the paper or into the computer and get it done! Well, it isn't so easy. Your mind can trick you. Your life, aka the things you do to keep yourself busy, can overtake you.

I have been fooled repeatedly by my own psyche. I work diligently day after day, feeling good about writing and the process, which then flows into the rest of my life in nothing but positive ways. Then, without warning, I am sidetracked. I’ve never experienced the proverbial writer’s block, knock wood, but I have been (seemingly) interminably sidetracked. Distracted. Waylaid. Or, as Maud Lebowski says, “taken for the proverbial ride.” And the culprit, my mind. My silly, jammed-with-20th-century-pop-culture mind. Cannot and will not blame anyone or anything else. That’s too easy. It’s this bundle of synapses in my skull that keeps me from what I want to do, love to do, and strive to do.

That in and of itself is so strange to me. How can it be that we have the desire, the craving, the knowledge that it is good for us in every way, and yet we still don’t get it done? Answer? I have no idea. I just shrug my shoulders, put on my best California-roll-with-it-dude attitude, and get on with it.

I’ve read about tons of remedies. My favorites are: setting an alarm on your desktop so that you are prodded into doing the work; making your workspace a friendly, welcoming place where you would want to sit down for hours and type away; setting a schedule and doing a little bit every day until you gain some momentum. These and many more are all great ideas and more than likely offer each and every writer a respite from their troubles. I’ve tried most of them.

For me, it’s the schedule that works. I force myself out of bed at an ungodly hour every morning, make coffee, do other menial chores like take out the trash or recyclables, if necessary, and then sit down and ace the words. What gets me going in the beginning is rehashing and editing things I’ve already written. Let’s say I’m working on a new novel – okay, I am – and I need to get back into it. My mind has taken a vacation for a few months and I’m tired of feeling guilty about not revisiting and completing this work. Diving back into editing what is already down reminds me that I can, in fact, do it. It puts my mind in the same place it was during that productive period. It re-submerses me into the world I created and demands that I work the words over again and again. In short, getting up early and re-working something I’ve already written is a great way for me to replicate the mindset I need to want to continue on with the story or the structure or whatever the project is I’m working on.

But this obviously would be different if I were starting something new, or I should say having trouble starting something new. How would I be able to edit what’s there when there is nothing there? I’ve run into this as well. My solution is to pick up something old, something unfinished (come on, we all have them, those pieces that never quite reached fruition or were tossed by the wayside for any one of myriad reasons), and begin reworking it. This has the same effect for me. It shoves my head below the surface of that murky pond and forces me to re-enter that world, re-work it, polish it, whatever, and fight for air. Even if I don’t continue with that particular piece – after all, there was probably a good reason it was tossed aside to begin with – at least I forced myself into the writing (the right) mindset.
So, just write. Right? It’s easy! Or, at the very least, it’s easier than we’ve convinced ourselves it is…

Til next time.