what to do when you can't write, or you don't want to

If you have a story that keeps playing itself out just when you're dozing off at night, or after you've  been driving for a while, or when you're walking in the woods or on the beach...when your mind is free to wander and you were hoping for some peace and quiet...it may be begging you to share it with the rest of us. It may be time to put it into words on the page.

"If a story is in you, 

it has got to come out."

~William Faulkner~

The problem is that life hands us all kinds of interruptions and distractions. Some are happy events like the birth of a baby, a wedding, or an overdue vacation. We celebrate them with the people we love, and we enjoy doing it even when it puts our work on hold.

Unfortunately, some are unhappy occasions--a death in the family, the loss of a job, or an illness. Because there is so much to think about and so much to do, writing has to take a back seat for a while. People need our attention and our care. We may not be able to shake off our own sadness, or pain, or fear. It can be a challenge to put two consecutive thoughts together in proper order.

Still, when life gets in the way, we can't simply ignore it in the battle to make our word count for the day. We can't just sneak away when no one is looking to hang out with our manuscript.

In fact, we may not want to.

So what will you do when you can't write, or don't want to write? When you don't have the time, or the energy, or the motivation to line up perfect little sentences one after the other for someone else to judge?

Quoting James Baldwin:

"One writes out of only one thing--

one's own experience. 

Everything depends on how relentlessly

one forces from this experience

the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give."

~James Baldwin~

Whether your experience is sweet or bitter, savor it. Submit to every moment. Don't waste a drop. This is what will inform your writing when you do take up your work again. Anticipation, joy, and kinship, deeply felt, have the power to uplift the reader. Likewise, tribulation, well written, connects the reader with his own reality and tempers his own sorrow.

"Share your story with someone.
You never know

how one sentence of your life story

could inspire someone to rewrite their own."

~Demi Lovato~

Is it hard for you to maintain your writing practice? What is preventing you from writing? When will you begin?

"There's a secret that real writers know

that wannabe writers don't,

and the secret is this: 

It's not the writing part that's hard. 

What's hard is sitting down to write."

~Steven Pressfield~

The secret is to sit. Stay. Write. Remember that to get started:

"All you have to do is write one true sentence.

Write the truest sentence that you know."

~Ernest Hemingway~

jan