Write on your butt
a meta-reflection on writing
There are certain things you have to do when you are actually trying to be a writer. You have to write. You have to read. And you need to put your stuff out there. It is not always going to be good. It’s not always going to be widely read or even appreciated. But as with anything, and maybe this is something he could have learned a bit earlier in life, you have to work at it.
He knew that when he sat back down to writing a few years ago that it would be difficult. He knew that writing and becoming famous overnight is not common or even that possible…unless you have a good agent. Even then you have to be relatively skilled at constructing sentences and enticing readers. He knew that even to get published would take time. So, he decided to put in the work.
Denying self-micromanaging (meta-managing?) your writing is almost degrading.
Some days, he could not shut it off. The words would just flow and he would not care where the idea went. He would just let it run. Other days, he would sit in front of the computer and stare at the screen until that is all he saw when he closed his eyes. Stark. White. Writer’s block became thought block. How better to write about writing than to write about how not to write? Or how do you write when you can’t think of anything.
He finds it difficult to write when he doesn’t have anything to say, just like he finds it difficult to write without editing. Denying self-micromanaging (meta-managing?) your writing is almost degrading.
The difference between him then and him now is that now, he sits down to write regardless. He puts his butt in the chair and writes. He just writes. Damn what anyone else thinks. They don’t have to see it unless he wants them to.
Who cares if you don’t have anything to say? You might think you don’t. That is just what you say when you are not thinking. You have to grease the wheels and pull out the words. They will most likely sound like gibberish, but that’s the power of editing. You have to stretch before you run. Write gibberish. Put on noise or whatever and get your mind inside something else besides your head.
I contribute to Illumination, An Idea (An Ingenious Piece), and Fellowship of Writers.
My fiction can be found on Vocal: Vulture Writer
I write poetry, which can be found on the first to publications above and in my books here:
Zombie Bait: Pieces of my brain for you to digest- A book of poems Kindle Edition
