Today brought the prompt: what gets in the way of your writing and how do you eliminate it?
I have this thing I do--I make plans. Ever thought about what you'd do if you cut off your finger in the kitchen? I have. I have The Perfect Plan for that situation. Well, that and about one gazillion other situations. Every time a new situation or possibility of a situation arises my mind immediately tries to find the rules and game the scenario so that I 1) don't look dumb, 2) minimize risk and 3) find the optimum way to achieve acclaim/adoration/not looking dumb.
You'd think I'd be great a chess, right? Not so much.
The plans tend to be so specific to really oddball scenarios that they're barely ever feasible. And that's being very kind to myself.
My writing is the same way. I have some ideas. They're not well developed and lack The Perfect Plan. Instead of doing hard work to flesh them out and create I usually just think that not taking the risk will help me avoid the ever dreaded Looking Dumb.
Next year my word is 'integrate' and that is going to mean that I'm spending more time with my creative outlets and having faith that my validation is enough. With that careful approach, that self-kindness and respect, I'm hoping that I can finally move forward with some of the stories I have to tell.
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Hey Steph.
ReplyDeleteI miss you.
Oh the plans. I never told you I am a bit of a planner myself.
Moving forward to tell stories. Amen.
I love stories! I can't wait to read them.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that your planning self needs a place at the table, but she definitely needs to scoot over and give the spontaneous part a seat!
ReplyDeleteI love the laughing pic of us from Jen's video. :)