You never know when inspiration is going to hit and waiting for it is like suicide for your writing career. Inspiration strikes are like shooting stars. They don’t come around nearly as often as we’d like.
Revelations are similar. You can’t just ask for a revelation to take place. It often hits when you least expect it.
Like this weekend for example. The family and I planned a weekend getaway. Thinking that it was going to be a warm day (it’s the middle of a Queensland spring after all) we booked our favourite beachside spot weeks ago. I had great plans for lounging by the pool, working on the tan, reading, and writing my book.
Hmm. Turned out to be the coldest and wettest weekend in months. I don’t remember winter being this cold. Perfect for writing indoors by a cosy fire but not exactly ideal conditions for our weekend plans of being around the pool.
Shit happens.
Try keeping a five-year old entertained after they’ve been told that swimming and bike riding is off the menu.
Between ping-pong, the local tavern indoor playground and watching three hours of the Avengers: Endgame movie (I cried!), we somehow managed and by the afternoon the rain subsided and my son and husband went out to play outside while I got an hour to write.
Then my brain froze.
Yep. I had an hour or so of free writing time and I couldn’t write at all. WTF.
Then I thought, why the pressure? I’m on a weekend away with my family. Is it really that bad if I write nothing at all?
Of course not.
Besides I did manage a quick few paragraphs of a book I’m rewriting in between breakfast and lunch. It was ten minutes but enough to have ticked the box.
And that’s the revelation, and the problem: ticking boxes.
Everything I do revolves around ticking boxes. My life feels like a never-ending to-do list.
- Work out done. Tick.
- Five hundred words written. Tick.
- Cleaned the kitchen. Tick.
- Played with my son. Tick.
- Went to work. Tick.
- Dinner cooked. Tick.
- Read a chapter. Tick.
- Brushed and flossed. Tick.
Pressure. Pressure. Pressure.
Life is not a to-do list. Yet, so many of us revolve our lives around one. Sure it’s okay to have a list of things to do but it’s equally important to throw out the list when we go away. Let loose, go with the flow, have fun.
Writing doesn’t have to be a to-do list either, at least not with each writing session. You want some flexibility.
To-do lists have their place. In writing and in life.
But if everything in life (and writing) revolved around a to-do list, I don’t think we’d end up getting all that much done. At least not stuff that really mattered.
I know it sounds ridiculous but sometimes that daily pressure is counterproductive. Sometimes we just need to go with the flow.
Take a moment to think about your daily to-do list. How much do you actually tick off at the end of the day?
All of it? Half of it? A quarter? Barely get through a few?
Most of the time the list keeps growing as do your stress levels when shit doesn’t get done.
Do this instead.
It’s okay. Life won’t fall apart. The book won’t be forgotten.
Sometimes it’s okay to do absolutely nothing guilt free.
And enjoy it.
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