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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

What to Write

We all have those moments where we are at a complete loss of what to write. Oh sure there are probably 50 different ideas going on in your head but when it comes to writing on them you find yourself at a loss of words. I have gone to write now two days in a row but have no idea what I want to write about. Should I write about the book I just read, should I write another piece on my struggles on growing up, or should I branch out and write something completely different. Sometimes the hardest part of writing is picking a topic and following through on the writing. It's all about the follow through, which makes me think of a song by Gavin Degraw called " Follow Through". In that song he says: " You'll have to follow through. on every word you say". Now it may seem like I'm rambling but trust me I'm going somewhere with this song. Read those lyrics again. Now think about the writing process. Every word carries weight, carries meaning, an author has to follow through with what they say on paper to make the words mean something, which can be the most daunting task. The hardest part is transferring the ideas to paper or in this case the ideas to a computer screen. 

Many of my friends often laugh over how heavy my purse is but it's because I usually have two books and two notebooks on me at all times. I may not even touch any of them in a day but it's a comfort to know that any time inspiration strikes I can jot down a few notes about an idea I may have. The struggle comes when trying to flush out that idea. many times I have sat down in front of screen to write sat there for an hour or so to end up with nothing. Maybe I'm over thinking the process. Maybe I'm just not that strong of a writer. Maybe I'm just lazy that day. Maybe it's the ADHD side of me. Or maybe it's the thought that the words I put out there carry weight, which means I'm not just going to write about anything and post it. Sometimes the hardest part of the writing is the follow through but it can also be the best part. 

When I sat down to write tonight I had no idea I was going to end up writing a whole post on writing but as my thoughts began to wander, the words began to flow and I started to finally follow through on a post. Sometimes the easiest way to jump start the process is not to plan what to write but to let the piece write itself. This may not be my best piece of writing but I've achieved several things with this post. I finally followed through on a blog post, I wrote something down, I feel inspired to keep writing, and I'm following through on my goal of posting more frequently. In not knowing what to write I have voiced out loud my writing process, taking you through my mind( I know a very scary place) on what goes through my mind when I try to write, If you take away anything from this post take away that writing is a constant process. You may not like everything you write. You may walk away with nothing after sitting down for hours trying to write something. But if you just sit and let the words flow with no clear purpose just follow through on the actual act of pen to paper or fingers to keys, you may find yourself with a piece you never thought you could write or at the very least feel like you accomplished something with your time. Until next time, I'll leave you with this image of how I feel about the writing process.

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