I've heard it said {thank you Jen} that writers write, everyday. Looking back over my days, I write a lot, but how often do I write things for me? How often do I let my imagination take the wheel and drive me wherever it wants to take me? When was the last time that I wrote something and thought, "Wow that was really good!"? It has been way too long. The most I write is for work, and that is usually just copying someone else's words into a different format. That is not writing. That is copying. Or cheating. Depending on how you look at it.
I like to tell myself that I don't write a lot because I am busy and that I'll make time for writing when I'm not as busy. But in reality, I am only going to get busier from here. In the next few years I will likely {and hopefully!} get married and maybe have a couple kids. Will that make me any less busy? I highly doubt it!
I love being busy. I live from one distraction to another. Maybe it has something to do with me being {basically} an only child after my sister, 10 when I was born, got married and moved out when I was 12 and her 22. Or maybe it has something to do with this technology-driven world we live in.
I realized that I have such a hard time focusing on one thing at a time. I constantly find myself watching TV and on facebook on my phone, and trying to write something. No wonder nothing happens!
Maybe the characters of my imagination have gone on strike until I give them the undivided attention they deserve. They have written picket signs that say "No attention, No inspiration" and are marching around the creative section of my brain not allowing me to cross the picket lines to access it.
So to appease the little muses in my brain, I am going to do my best to write for me, and them, as much as possible. Maybe not always on this blog, but somewhere. Even if it ends up being words scribbled onto napkins and in the margins of books, I vow to write as much as my brain can spew out through my fingers in the days to come.
Me too! As soon as I quit reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is a little sad, but I had to download an extension for Google Chrome called StayFocusd.... and it will block out any app I want it to after I've used up my daily time. Between the hours of 9a and 9:30p I get about an hour (which is still too much, but yesterday was my first day trying it out, so I'll mess with it some more today).
I was told two things by someone. Always carry a notepad and a digital recorder (phone would work for this, too, but I do happen to have a digital recorder) for those ideas you're afraid you'll lose before you can put them somewhere more permanent.
If you need a cheering squad for writing, you know I'm there.
I feel like you and I should have a regular time to hang out and just write. Keep each other focused! It's so hard! I get so distracted so easily! {And I am enjoying your comment roll!!}
DeleteI feel like we should, too. As long as we didn't feel like we needed to entertain each other....
DeleteWe wouldn't even really have to talk to each other! But it could also be great to have someone to bounce ideas off!
DeleteAs long as there was no expectation to talk, I think it would be fine. I write my novel in Google Docs and two people who have consistently read and commented are my idea-bouncers. What program do you use (if any) when you write?
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