Last weekend, we drove to Montana for the weekend. We are two high school teachers whose kids are all grown up now. This year we’re being intentional about trying to insert some get-aways throughout the school year. This was our first one. The whole idea is a bit impulsive, indulgent, and even a little risky. To leave school on a Thursday at 4, take that Friday off, and drive through the night to arrive at our rental cottage in the town of Hot Springs at three in the morning. The weekend was wonderful, but that’s not what I want to talk about here. What I want to talk about is the unexpected afterglow and its impact on my creative process.
I’ve been stuck in my writing. Feeling indecisive. Constantly working away at editing the same two books that at this point I can’t figure out why I wrote anyway. Believing that if I just approach it from a new angle, and edit that chapter one more time, I’ll be able to bring some life back into the projects. Not wanting to waste all that time I spent writing those thousands and thousands of words.
How many times have I written on this blog that I’m here for the joy of writing?
And yet here I am toiling away, not wanting to waste anything.
The morning after we returned from Montana, the decisions were suddenly so easy. Start the new book that has been simmering on the back burner for almost two years now, that is the one you think about and care about now. Let go of any questions about what will happen to those other books or whether anything will happen at all. Write more poetry, dammit. How long has it been since you let a flash storm of words through you onto the page? Remember where you started. Remember how you lifted one poem at a time into this love of words, this word realm where you can get at the deeper, wordless parts of you. A paradox.
Creative friends, this work demands structure and commitment, for sure. But is also demands risk, indulgence—impulsivity. Keeping these aspects in balance is a constant practice that thankfully we don’t have to do entirely alone.
Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals? Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time:
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up