Begin again

Here's the truth: I haven't sat down at my desk, booted up Scrivener and the Freedom app, and written or edited sentences of my own in several weeks. There's some liberation in not writing -- it feels a little like skipping school, provoking both exhilaration and guilt. But at some point, not writing makes me feel unsettled, uneven, the way I feel if I skip exercise for a while or fall down on my vegetable consumption.

But finding my way back to the desk after a hiatus isn't simple. It requires a good talking to with the voices in my head claiming I'll never write again and re-establishing rituals around schedule and short assignments. Often I set a timer to get back to my desk, starting with 15 minutes and building from there. Another good way to get back to writing is simply reading over your work. It doesn't take long to find a sentence or paragraph you want to stick around and gnaw on. And if the idea of your own work revolts you, look at somebody else's. Reading can jolt our subconscious awake, renewing inspiration and motivation.

A lot of things in the world are changing, and we keep not knowing what the world will look like in a month or two months or six months. Uncertainty and change can disrupt any practice. The point isn't to adhere unfailingly to a creative practice. The point is knowing at some point life will get in the way and your task will be finding a way to restart. I do not think it's a coincidence that there is only one letter difference between the word rest and reset. The slower I take it, the easier the path back to writing is for me. 

If you need some help restarting, I've got three classes on deck for the rest of this wacky year: Short Fiction Seminar, Reading and Writing Memoir, and a storytelling class soon to be scheduled. In the meantime, take care and take it easy, as much as you are able.

J.