A day or so ago I found this blog post by Ali, about how to overcome writing procrastination. You should definitely read this article, even if you're a writing machine. Trust me on this.
What is it about reading something or speaking it out loud that calms us down and gives us more courage and clarity? Have you experienced this? Say you're stressed, but don't really know why. Or maybe you do know, but you can't seem to find a remedy for it. Then you sit down and read something and it's like the author is speaking directly TO YOU and everything seems okay again, even though your situation hasn't changed. Or maybe you find yourself telling a friend that you're feeling low, and suddenly there are words for the angst when there weren't any before. You find that merely communicating it intelligibly to a sympathetic other arranges it all neatly in your head and you know where to go from there. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
This article was great, because it was like the author spoke directly to my anxiety and identified all of my mental hang-ups about digging in to the work of writing. That's the thing-- I realized reading this piece that so, sooo often it's not what's actually going on around us that is unsurmountable. It's how we're percieving it. Because outside stuff is exactly that--outside. We can't control it. But how are we sizing up our giants? With a little mental shift, those giants can shrink.
So read the article. Be encouraged. And cut those giants down, so that you can look 'em in the eyes! Oh yeah-- and starting working on that dusty pile of plot sketches!
What is it about reading something or speaking it out loud that calms us down and gives us more courage and clarity? Have you experienced this? Say you're stressed, but don't really know why. Or maybe you do know, but you can't seem to find a remedy for it. Then you sit down and read something and it's like the author is speaking directly TO YOU and everything seems okay again, even though your situation hasn't changed. Or maybe you find yourself telling a friend that you're feeling low, and suddenly there are words for the angst when there weren't any before. You find that merely communicating it intelligibly to a sympathetic other arranges it all neatly in your head and you know where to go from there. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
This article was great, because it was like the author spoke directly to my anxiety and identified all of my mental hang-ups about digging in to the work of writing. That's the thing-- I realized reading this piece that so, sooo often it's not what's actually going on around us that is unsurmountable. It's how we're percieving it. Because outside stuff is exactly that--outside. We can't control it. But how are we sizing up our giants? With a little mental shift, those giants can shrink.
So read the article. Be encouraged. And cut those giants down, so that you can look 'em in the eyes! Oh yeah-- and starting working on that dusty pile of plot sketches!
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