Writing When I’m Not Writing

Lately, a strange thing has been happening and it has happened enough times for me to take notice. I’m getting my best writing done when I’m at my busiest. A sizzling new verse, begging to be turned into a poem, will pop into my head right before a project deadline. I’ll finally resolve a knotty sentence when I am rushing to get my son to his tennis lesson. I’ll figure out where my poem – which heretofore has resisted moving in any direction – will end, while I’m hopping with one leg in my jeans and my ride is honking in the driveway.

But when I’m sitting at my desk, trawling the recesses of my parched creativity for a single kernel of inspiration, preparing to offer myself as human sacrifice to the Muse if necessary, then…nothing. Not a damn whiff of an idea. The Gobi Desert gets more rain than I have hope of getting any writing done.

I finally figured out the reason: Creativity happens when you’re not forcing it.

I’m still a huge advocate of disciplining yourself to write and showing up at your writing station everyday so your mind can be trained to be present to your writing at that time but I’ve come to understand that showing up doesn’t mean tying yourself up in knots if ideas don’t come and the writing doesn’t happen. Writing happens when you don’t worry about it. Whenever I try to FORCE myself to write it stresses me out. I get nothing done and then it catches up with me when I’m adrenalin-charged for other things. Dashed inconvenient.

So here are a few Scribe’s Tips to write stress-free:
1- Cultivate a pre-writing ritual. Peppermint hot chocolate features prominently in my pre-writing schedule. The first mug (ok, so I’m a little addicted) gets me out of my sleep-funk and thinking about the day’s writing. It’s the calm before I give myself over to furor poeticus. It centers me and prepares me for the mental work.

2- Suspend the deadline. I don’t recommend doing this too often because it is good to have a structured, disciplined approach but when planning your writing build in days when you write not to meet the word count or page quota but at whatever pace suits you.

3- Enjoy your writing. Remember when it was fun? When there were no deadlines or agonized self-loathing for not putting your best writing foot forward? Give yourself permission to recapture that sense of joy and play in your work that makes being a writer worth it. Relax and delight in the process.

Until next time!