Some of the things I'm sure are just brilliant that I write, go over like a lead balloon, while others that I don't plan out, or necessarily feel inspired to write at all, seem to really hit some magic nail on the head.
Here's what I've come to understand about my own writing process - when it's working, I don't even know where I'm going with something until I get there. The best parts of my memoir, favorite blog posts, even letters or e-mails I write, it's all the same thing: I just get started and somewhere along the way I make a turn towards "something." Sometimes there is a lot of editing to take out all the meandering, and other times, boom, there it is - surprising me more than anyone.
My new (ish) favorite thing to do is go to Starbucks, get all caffed up and just start with a blank "page." I wonder what I'm going to say? I think to myself. On a good day I change the title three times, because where I think I am is not where I am, and where I am going is not where I'm going, and where I end up is not where I thought I'd end up.
Perhaps life is not meant to be planned out in excruciating detail, but rather, allowed to unfold.
* Photo from http://www.istockphoto.com/
3 comments:
Love this!
Ditto, Michelle. Me, too.
Absolutely right, my friend. I was fussing over what to post about today on my blog and when I finally remembered to leave it alone, the subject "came to me."
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