It’s the end of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for those in the know. And I have to tip my hat to you all. Writing a novel in a month scares me more than public speaking. Just the thought of it brings back an old episode of Golden Girls. You remember the one where Blanche was up all night writing the greatest novel ever? After she got sleep, she realized all that hard work was for naught. Her words written on black and white marble journals didn’t make any sense.
That’d be me if I did it.
Instead, I spent more than a week cruising Arizona. I didn’t do a stitch of writing. {Except for writing in my one line a day journal-something I mentioned in my guest post here.}
All I did was breathe in the dry Arizona air, inhale the deep red mountains in Sedona and sigh over big cracks in the earth and canyons worth crying over.
It was like visual poetry and I didn’t want to waste a minute of it writing about my in-the-moment experience.
When I got back, I realized that the trip had quenched my writing spirit. And that somewhere along the way, I had lost that sense of excitement I first felt when I put pen to paper.
And I learned that it’s inevitable. That life happens. That bills come. That light bulbs need changing. That you need to go to the dentist. That someone needs to buy the groceries. That every day you must brush your teeth, get out of bed, walk into your every day life and do what you must do to go through it. But every once in awhile you get a glimpse of how magical life really is and through that open door you’ll find the motivation to write.
I know authors and writers more experienced than me will say that you must sit your butt down and get to it. That you don’t need inspiration to write, you need discipline and motivation and perseverance.
I agree. But I also believe that without taking care of yourself, without giving yourself the time to be inspired, to get out of your comfort zone, to see life in a new way, your work will be dull. You need to tend your life, just the way you tend your garden. Maybe even more so.
When you remember the “you” in your writing, your motivation to write will follow…
