I sit down with the intention to write. But as for so many of us, I am visited by the familiar doubts: What am I going to write about? Do I really have anything worth saying? What will others think of what I write? I’m tempted to check my email, make a cup of tea, start some laundry, go for a walk—anything to escape the discomfort of beginning. Instead I acknowledge the critical voices, recognizing them for the killjoys that they are, push past them and just start to write. It’s an act of faith. A trusting that something will come. As I write, I’m reminded that writing is generative. By writing, I find what to write. By writing, more comes—thoughts, memories, details, connections, discoveries. If you let it, writing will reward you with the unexpected.
As I write—here, now—I can feel myself settle. And I realize that more than a topic what comes when I write is myself. The experience of being present to myself. Of hearing myself think. Of taking time to reflect.
How much of our day is spent rushing around or jumping from thing to thing, distracted, on automatic pilot, absent from ourselves? We can tell ourselves that taking time to center, to find some quiet, to be with ourselves is unrealistic, even self indulgent. But what’s the cost of not taking this time? What’s the value of what we do when it’s done in a hurried, harried state?
Writing can offer so much: recollection, release, understanding, insight, integration. It’s the ego concerns— the desire for control and confirmation—that make it hard to start. Treating writing as a practice lowers the stakes. It allows for imperfection not just in the writing but in ourselves. All that a practice asks of us is that we try on a regular basis for a manageable period of time and that we return to it even when it feels hard and we have doubts. In return, a practice steadies us and offers a place to grow.
So try it. Sit down, say boo to the critical voices and push past the distractions. Write and see what comes. And say hello to yourself.
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you for your helpful words. You make writing seem so accessible. Do you recommend writing with a goal in mind … a subject to write about? Or simply sitting down and seeing what
words come without a story or specific theme envisioned? I’d like to start writing but really don’t know what I would write about.
Many Thanks,
David
Hi David,
I appreciate your comments about my blog post. Great that you’re interested in starting to write! You ask good questions about how to go about this. I’d recommend experimenting with approaches to find what works for you. If you had a goal in mind, it can help you get started. You can also try free writing, which involves sitting down and seeing what comes. The writer Natalie Goldberg who wrote the wonderful book Writing Down the Bones, suggests free writing for ten minutes nonstop, so that you don’t edit yourself prematurely and stop those creative half thoughts that could lead to something interesting. You could also jot down observations from your day or the world around you, and use these as launches for writing.
Whether you have a goal in mind or not, it’s good to be open to where the writing may take you. A wonderful writing professor at UNH, Donald Murray, used to say no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. In other words, it can be more interesting to write into what we don’t know rather than write exactly what we already know.
I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your exploration!
All the best,
Rebecca
Thanks for these helpful ideas.
Thank you for your teaching over the years, Rebecca, and thank you for sharing your writing and your encouragement with us. Your statement that “writing is generative” feels very real.
I could feel this story develop as you explain the process of going with the flow of the writing, as if we were writing it together.
Please keep writing to us.