I love to write. As I’ve mentioned more than a few times on this platform, I tend to be an old school kinda writer too – I enjoy the feel of a pen against the texture of paper. That’s my preferred mode of writing.
The problem, of course, has been the inability to actually transform some of those pieces of writing immediately onto my blog – not that I think I’m writing such extraordinary stuff or anything, but some of that creative work could help someone else, or maybe by sharing it, I might be able to get some insight into what others think and feel about it too. I mean feedback is always a good thing. But as an artist, as a writer, we want to share our work and I wasn’t doing any of that!
But I can’t lie – with my schedule, it’s tough to spend that time handwriting and then have to consider going back to type it all out just so I can post on my blog. By the time I get my head wrapped around the entire process, the idea of actually wanting to post something just flitters away. I’ve lost all umph.
There was a time when I was actually posting pictures of my actual handwritten journal entries. I got some great feedback about that process. People kind of enjoyed looking and reading those. But then the problem became I wasn’t writing freely because I knew I’d post it online so I wanted to “mind my manners” while writing. It just wasn’t fun or easy. Writing became a chore. And honestly, I just couldn’t have any of that! NO WAY! Writing is my everything. My therapy. My outlet. My love!
So, for the past couple of months I’ve been basically exercising, learning really, a new way to write and to share. At first, it was a lot of work. Because it was changing the way I normally do things. I’ve been writing like this since I was a little girl. I had to re-train myself to do something new – to write in the “afternoon” sort of speak. Now my early morning pages (cue anyone who has ever read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way) are reserved for therapeutic topics. And whenever I get the urge to write too fully an idea that might be a great blog post or something to share, I’ve taught myself to jot the idea down in one sentence, or record the thought, and save it to “write in the afternoon” – which really means: save the idea till you finish your morning pages and then switch to the laptop.
It’s been difficult – because my best “thinking” is without a doubt early in the morning right after that delicious first sip of coffee. I feel like every thought that’s been resting all night long while I sleep, comes perfectly alive and ready to be released first thing in the morning. Typing out those thoughts just didn’t feel the same. Clearly, what I was doing, wasn’t working. I was frustrated with not really sharing enough. And isn’t that what this whole blogging thing, social media gig, is all about?
Well, when what you’ve been doing isn’t working, change things up a bit – it might take a little time to get the hang of it, but it already seems to be so very worth it! At least for me. 🙂
