Just write.

Writing should be like breathing, it should consume your every fibre until you just become one teeming mass of text and caffeine.  I should have read every classic text and should know of every ‘great’ author, know all the theories, critics and publications that revolve around the profound yet pernickety craft. 

Creative Commons: Drew Coffman, Flickr

 

I don’t and never have believed in doing things just because we should do them. Oops!

For me, writing is like finding one-of-a-kind  pebbles or shells on the beach , and over an extended period of time that collection steadily grows . Then one day you look down at your hands and you see that you have acquired enough pebbles to make something with. Perhaps you can imagine an arty vase or the shower floor in a kind of organic mosaic pattern. 

We are always learning and growing, expanding and contracting, pausing and acting. So find what energy ‘phase’ you are in and connect with it for inspiration. Are you in an active phase or a regenerative/still phase?   

Go and tap into that. Tap into your own rhythm and don’t be so caught up in the rules.

Writing is something most people do in some way or form. It’s a functional thing. So when we think a thought like “I can’t write” over and over we are actually lying to ourselves.

  

At the most basic level we are still capable of writing things down whether it’s a list, directions or an itinerary. As simple as this sounds, do remember how long it took you to learn that skill as a child. Do remember whether you had to wear a pencil grip (like I did) or just remember the sensation of performing one of the basic human acts: that of physically forming words from the lead of a pencil. Also remember those who cannot write, remember those who have no arms, no sight and/or no education. So when you get down to it, saying “I can’t write” is firstly a lie and secondly it starts to sound ungrateful and unhealthily self-involved. So what we should be saying is “I know I can write, now I want to challenge myself and develop it as a kind of craft”. Or whatever mantra you feel comfortable using. 

It’s rare to find inspirational nuggets everywhere but there are certainly those writers who seem to be able to squeeze gold out of every moment. That is what we call ‘being on a roll’. Some ‘rolls’ last longer than others, some last about as long as a quarter pounder deluxe, some go on for years, others seem to stretch across lifetimes. 

A schism seems to exist when it comes to the writing process. It’s the notion that one should either ‘be’ all about writing where you live breathe, eat, and poop writing. The other category, which most people seem to fall under, is to pick up inspiration whenever it randomly strikes (like lightening on clear blue day...). Also remember we are more infinite than what we can do or what we own or make financially. 

 Some say write a paragraph every day. Some carry a notebook with them wherever they may go sketching insights to store for later. Others get others to write books about them. Others write with a co-author making the process a little easier. Others (like me) randomly decided to write for therapeutic purposes and to heal others as one of a myriad of tools in the field of ‘self healing’.  

I feel that your intention for writing is most important as that is when channels and openings occur, that is when experiences and ideas seize you. It happens when you define your purpose for doing it, whatever it may be. As long as it is something, something as simple as writing for the sake of writing even.

I have friends who probably feel inadequate when approaching a writing task. Even when sitting down to write for fun. It’s not because it’s true. It’s because it’s untrue. As cliché as this quote by Marianne Williamson may seem, it is still truthful and a great mantra for life and any creative task.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God [Goddess/Universe]. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”

I would say never try and measure up to a standard. Focus on yourself and what you are doing. Decide that you will sit down, and spend an hour just getting something down. There is always something on our minds. Just write it. Just be in the moment. Don’t think, “Oh that sounds too much like that author or this author or that style or this theorist hates this”. Never mind those things. Remember your can always go back and take things out, cut things up, edit.

So for all my talented writer friends, who feel trepidation because of the mental standard immediately being conjured up in that moment – say “Go away! I banish thee like the fiend you are!” Negative thoughts are parasitic fiends who feed on light and creativity. Ban those thoughts and move on to the task at hand.

Do it. Decide that you like to write, and that is all you need.Treat it as sacred and the rest will come.  To follow your bliss is to put yourself on the right track. Forget about what you should or should not do. Forget the rules.

After all this is writing not driving, 

you won’t kill someone because of your writing.