Let’s Write Without Constraint

Regular practice is important, but with a nice pinch of levity

Practice makes perfect, as the famous saying goes. It’s by reading that you get ideas for stories, as my own saying goes! Sorry for the lame introduction, but that’s what came to me at the moment to introduce this story. But it makes sense, I promise you.

Because it was while reading Nadin E Hopfer’s beautiful story — if you haven’t read it yet, go for it — that I got the idea for this piece! Thanks again Nadin for your story, even if it was born after your terrible fall. But as you said yourself, it’s bad for a good.

I told you in one of the editions of The Story Box I would write more stories to feed the new resources page. I hope this one will be useful, and that it will make you want to share your own experiences about your writing habits.

My writing approach

You know me too well to know that I have a literary approach to writing. At least, writing on Medium, as I see it and defend it through Scribe. Beautiful letters, good words, deep and touching stories, emotion, that’s what I like to read, and that’s what I try to write on my own little level.

It’s also what I like to read outside of here when I open a novel and let myself go through the authors’ words. You will never find self-help books in my library, simply because I prefer to find the resources for my well-being in literature. I find it so much healthier, and I prefer to let the magic work in me by reading the words of the greatest (or lesser-known) authors of literature, be it French, American, or foreign.

I just closed John Haines’ book, The Stars, the Snow, the Fire: Twenty-five Years in the Northern Wilderness, and immediately opened the book D’un cheval l’autre by Bartabas, who is a choreographer, director, set designer, stage director, but above all and perhaps the most famous horseman in the world, inventor of equestrian theater.

Those of you who have been reading me for years know that I began writing more intensely as a therapeutic way to better know myself, better understand the world, and better live in the present. I have never written to please, or to seduce, or to attract crowds, or to boost my Medium profile, or to make money, or to become famous, or anything else. I will never do it unless something falls on my head and makes me become someone else.

My relationship with writing has never been a constraint, since I have never set myself any particular objective, except to enjoy myself above all by letting my fingers tap on my keyboard, to tell stories in the most authentic way possible. For these reasons, I have always written with great joy, without ever getting tired or bored. One hundred percent pleasure, if you like.

That’s pretty cool, right?

Writing on a daily basis does not mean publishing every day

I might still sound like the UFO who doesn’t want to do what everyone else does, but I’m one of those people who would never advise writing or more precisely publishing every day to make your journey through writing even more beautiful. In other words, I think we should not write under any kind of constraint.

We can write on a daily basis without exposing our work to the world every day. Indeed, I attach great importance to the craft. And to improve one’s art, there is nothing better than to practice it. But, isn’t it a noble idea to want to reserve the best of ourselves for those who will read us?

I still think that few writers are able to write and publish well-written stories every day. Unless you’re a born writer or a pure genius or have the ability to spend all your time perfecting your writing. Many writers have a very steady publishing pace around here, and some are good at it, for sure. It takes everything to make a world.

But many also set themselves constraints worthy of the strictest military training and flood the platform with stories of varying quality hoping one day to find the glory. You can read (I never read them, obviously) tons of stories about how to write, how to set goals to write better, write more, write about anything, etc. In short, be productive, whatever the cost!

God, I hate it when people associate writing with productivity and performance. Couldn’t art be something other than a matter of economics?

When we associate writing with these damn things, we are no longer writers, but content producers, marketing enthusiasts, disciples of the attention market with goals far removed from those who write for the love of words. In this case, the constraints to achieve a result are strong and useful. The question then arises: why do you write?

Writing with a blade of grass between the lips

I have no idea if the image is clear and understandable. But you probably know what I mean. What if we write with a dreamy mind, a blade of grass between our lips, and let our imagination take us there? What if we put no time or space constraints on our creative process? What if we simply wrote when the mood took us?

That’s what I’ve always done until now, and it’s always worked well. I’ve even noticed that inspiration comes to me more easily when I let myself go and don’t force myself to write, even if the urge is there and I can’t get even a few words down. When things get stuck, I just have to do something else, which sometimes is to just breathe and live.

I’d rather be suddenly surprised by an idea that I’m sure will give rise to hundreds of words than sit in front of my keyboard and say to myself, come on, we must write something, absolutely, even if it’s not great.

So how about bringing your next story to life by adding that little pinch of levity to your writing habit? What if you punctuate your practice with more or less long breaths? Perhaps in this way, you will attract the attention of loyal readers who will come back to read you, piqued by your uniqueness.

You can find more stories, which I hope will inspire us apprentice writers, on the Resources page of the publication. Like this story.