Just Write

Have you ever questioned why you write? Have you ever written a piece that seemed to be five hundred words of nothing? Or had your conclusion written out but lacked an intro or middle? I too get ahead of myself sometimes. I'm so eager to be done with whole writing process that I'm already thinking of the most eloquent way to say "the end".

You get to a point where you really don't want to draft, edit, proofread or do any of the other things to that go with writing. Perhaps you'll go and put a load in the laundry.

Laundry! When did chores become more satisfying than producing a written piece to share with like-minded people, or to illustrate a different perspective? If you put too much pressure on yourself then anything seems more important than writing. And you'll be finding any excuse to escape and procrastinate.

It's not that you are procrastinating from the actual task. You like writing. You like expressing yourself and possibly getting a little praise in the process. It's the stress that you are procrastinating against.

The pen chewing, fingers drumming, backspace pushing, stress. You know that lurking around your worksite are all those devilish obstacles such as writers block, brain fogs, your computer crashing right when you are in the middle of the most glorious sentence you ever wrote. Your hands will cramp up, or worse you'll just sit there staring at the nothingness which is your writing career-why must you suffer so-

There's really no need to be so dramatic or get an anxiety attack when you have to write. You know that the second you get started you won't be able to stop and that a hand cramp was never a good enough reason to stop writing and you love those, Ah ha moments that follow after a good healthy brain fog. And let's face it, has there ever been a better excuse to make the kids clean up then "I'm in the zone, if I stop now I may never write again!"

Yes, we have to take a few blows for our "art", moments when we just aren't as creative as we'd like to be. Or times when we would rather not jot down another phrase again, but it isn't possible. Whether you use articles to promote a business, write literature for children or poetry for social movements, you know that you can not go a long period of time without communicating yourself with one of life's most difficult tools-words. Try as you might the laundry just doesn't have that same spark of excitement as writing.

Don't write to change the world. Don't write to make a point. Don't write to make money. Just write. Write because you want to, because it excites you, because you like doing it. All the glory comes later and it forms itself as you go along. Just write, and then sit back and watch it happen. Ask yourself seriously, if you never became a best selling author, or even published could you really stop. You can procrastinate all you want be inevitably you'll be creeping back to your worksite to rekindle your relationship with your writing. Don't get discouraged and don't put so much pressure on yourself. Just write, whatever it is you want to say.