When an unsuspecting soul gets bitten by the writing bug, the natural reaction is to postpone the inevitable with a series of hastily constructed excuse blockades.
“Who wants to read anything by little ol’ me?”
“I could never write a whole book!”
“After this idea, I’m sure I’ll never have another!”
And, my personal favorite: “Where the heck am I gonna find the time?”
I have a special truth to whisper-write you today:
Writers will write.
Every creative contains an inner drive, ever pushing toward the act of creating—painting, sculpting, composing, transposing, crafting, drafting.
Certainly, many creatives cling to the certainty of paychecks and submit to responsibilities, suppressing and stifling the urge to make something. The fact is, they can never suffocate that passion.
Through embracing the need to create—to write worlds and conflicts and tragedies and comedies into being—a writer’s complete self emerges, and they can never look back.
Writers find ways to maintain paychecks and responsibilities while, one by one, they shatter the excuse blockades they’d constructed.
I invite you to continue along as we break down the four example blockades—community, ability, inspiration and time—beginning with the last.
Time
Ah, time! Have you ever considered how obsessed with time we are?
“Do you have the time?” the businessman asks a passerby.
A frazzled mother pushing an overloaded cart in the grocery tells a begging child, “We don’t have time.”
Over a tightly gripped, resting hand, a loved one whispers, “I thought we’d have more time.”
Books, shows and movies capitalize on our fixation and offer us a smorgasbord of options. From time travel to time lords, our imaginations convince us it truly is “a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.” (Thank you, Tenth Doctor!)
While we are handicapped by the earthly laws of time—in theory, anyway—I guarantee reluctant writers can and will find time to write once they shift time from “Blamed” to “Seized.”
I like to call this special type of time, “pocket moments,” miniscule amounts of the treasured commodity that can be seized by the bold and daring … with often surprising results, I might add. (You’re currently reading one product.)
Like spare change, forgotten in a hurriedly switched purse, or acknowledgement of unnecessary purchases, pocket moments can be found in unusual places.
- The five minutes between the end of one task and the must-leave time for the next event.
- The turning back of the alarm.
- The hour in the uncomfortable car during kids’ sports practices.
- The relinquishment of nightly TV time.
And, like the usually jingly jangle of coins clanking into a savings jar, pocket moments are small ... often dismissed for their insufficiency.
The thing about small things, though, is many combine into something substantial, noteworthy, effective.
Inspiration
I’m curious who first breathed into our world the lie about ideas being finite. My money’s on a culprit frequently rendered in art carrying a pitchfork and sporting horns.
Admittedly, I believed this lie and fretted about it at the beginning of my author journey. My misbelief turned out to be short-lived.
Before I had finished the first draft of what should have been a standalone novel, I was planning out three more books to accompany it. Now, I have a to-be-written register that’s catching up to my to-be-read list in length.
Inspiration literally surrounds us. Snip-its of overheard conversations. The captivating crystal blue eyes of the stranger in a fast-food restaurant. The mystical shimmer in a glint of sunlight dancing through falling autumn leaves. A prolonged goodbye between lovers in an airport.
I haven’t even mentioned the massive amount of untapped inspiration swirling inside the brains we can never fully comprehend or exhaustively use.
The only thing limiting us when it comes to ideas and inspiration and the revered “Muse,” isn’t a thing. It’s a person. Specifically, the person peering out of the mirror has the greatest power to stifle creativity.
Ability
Creatives can fall in the vipers’ pit of being their own worst critics. Those inner voices that slither out as whispered vitriolic lines can render a creative ineffective faster than a full Thanksgiving dinner does a once-a-year, cousins vs. cousins athlete.
No one should expect to write the Great American Novel with the first draft of their first novel attempt. That being said, writers who are serious about writing will always improve. Always.
I proudly hold up my debut novel as a testament to how much I have grown in my writing ability.
As you invest in yourself and your writing craft, you will receive dividends in completed projects, opened doors and undeniable progression.
Community
Much like ability, community often surprises writers with its abundance.
As life is navigated, day by day, fellow writers emerge. Common ground becomes a meeting place. Encouragements get swapped. Bonds are sealed.
As words are sent into the void, readers emerge. Words review. Recommendations are made. A community grows.
Every person has something to add to this giant world, and every creative has a gift meant to brighten another’s corner.
For those shrinking from creativity’s insistent sting, what you think you lack awaits. Clear away the remnants of the blockades you constructed and welcome these lurking commodities into your creative soul.
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