I admit, I haven’t recently followed the advice I give my writing coach and blog coach clients about writing on demand. I’ve only just now gotten back to writing my book Auntie Mom. For those of you who missed that post, suffice to say that my 18-year-old nephew from Paris has moved in with me. Since my previous parenting has extended to dogs (okay, I do have four) and my friends’ children, this has been a serious adjustment. The first four weeks brought material for three separate chapters. I knew I had to immediately write up those notes because I’d forget them no matter how funny–or volatile–the circumstances. So the book progressed well at first. Then we began to figure out how to live together, so there wasn’t as much obvious material. Around Thanksgiving I got sick not once but three times, so absolutely everything that wasn’t mandatory got sidelined. Three long months later, I finally resumed writing.
Clearly I know that life frequently impedes on our creativity. I also know that by not forcing the issue and writing on demand, I missed out and my book has suffered accordingly.
Too many of us wait for that bolt of inspiration to inspire our creativity. That’s great if you just want to play with your writing. If you’re at all serious about writing a book, however, you’re in for a long haul if you don’t sit your butt down and write on a regular basis regardless of whether the gods of creativity have launched that thunderbolt of creativity your way.
I learned about writing on demand as a college student at the University of California, Santa Cruz in a class called Daily Writing. Being compelled to write at least 200 words a day for an entire quarter was a terrific exercise which I would recommend to anyone. Was every piece I wrote a stunning display of creativity, thought or writing? Absolutely not! But that didn’t matter because that wasn’t the point.
Being forced to write every day whether I felt moved to or not showed me that our creativity is available on demand. As writers, you and I–rather than some external force of nature or divine inspiration–can summon that creativity simply by writing. Will some days be better than others? Sure. But the fact that you’re writing according to a schedule that you set rather than waiting to be inspired means that you’ll actually write. And once you let yourself drop back into that writing zone, you open the door to creativity of thought and of language.
So next time you catch yourself waiting for that moment of inspiration, remember that you’re in control of your creativity and just start writing.
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