Ramblings on Writing

To all the writers out there, how true does this quote feel sometimes? I really do love writing, it’s been a passion of mine since I was teenager. I’m so thankful to have it as an outlet. It’s such a fun and freeing experience when the words just seem to flow from the pen (or ahem, computer keys) with ease. But then there are those times when it feels like such a battle to get something that makes sense out of my jumbled brain and onto the blank page I’ve been staring at for over an hour, ya know? But when the work pays off and you’re reading over something you’re proud of; it feels so good having written. The creation process is both magical and maddening.

Tonight I was working on a blog and feeling so stuck… I made progress on it but have yet to finish it. Sometimes it feels like the hardest part for me is just getting myself to sit down and actually get started. I tend to procrastinate.

Tell me, am I the only one who does this? I sat down in front of my computer to write, stuck and just staring at a blank page, I thought I might as well check twitter for a minute… or 20 minutes to be exact. I clicked off and then realized I was kinda hungry. So I made me something to eat then sat down again ready to write. Minutes later, still staring at the blank page, I thought “I need some sort of inspiration”… so I go to Pinterest. Now, anyone who is a Pinterest addict like myself knows how big a mistake that is because once you get on Pinterest, you don’t get off lol, you’ll be there for hours. Finally I thought, okay I have to stop “pinning” and start writing. But my sweet tooth and need for sugar kicked in at that moment and over powered this resolve, and before I knew it, I was in the kitchen making Rice Krispie’s Treats lol. How sad is that? Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this! ;)

Somewhere in the middle of all this procrastination, I did get some writing done, and I’m happy with what I have so far… it just needs to be completed.

But I’m trying to remember to just start writing something even if I don’t quite know where to start. Because every time I stop waiting for inspiration strike and just begin; that’s when it usually starts flowing. It’s funny actually, a lot of times I’ll be staring at a blank page feeling like I have nothing to say. But when I just push through it and start writing I end up realizing not only do I have something to say, but sometimes I have too much to say. Writing can be such an odd irony, can’t it? Fun, freeing, but at times very frustrating.

"It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.” - The War of Art by Steven Pressfield