Mar
Running Out Of Words
Posted in Writer's Block, Writing | No Comments »Before I started writing regularly, I used to be afraid that I would run out of words, that I would not have enough to say. I think that fear is one of the things that kept me from beginning.
Having spent 20 years working in the legal field, being analytical and logical. I was afraid, too, that all of this left-brained thinking had ruined my ability to be creative. I was afraid that, when I sat down to write, the words would not come, and the words that did come would not be creative, but logical and dead and boring.
Frankly, my fears were not unwarranted. It was hard to get started. I couldn’t think of anything to write about. I took to carrying a tiny notebook with me, so I could write down the ideas as they came to me. This is something I heard about from another writer. The notebook did come in handy–it was gradually filled with reminders about dental appointments and shopping lists.
Once I sat down to write, getting the words to come out was difficult. I was becoming more and more convinced that, during the years I hadn’t been writing, my writing muscle and my coming-up-with-ideas-for-things-to-write-about muscle had completely atrophied. But I kept at it, and I kept carrying the notebook around, and one day, it was if the floodgates opened.
I was trying to come up with ideas for a blog I was working on in connection with a travel website. I was browsing in a book store, not really thinking about it, when the ideas started to come. I jotted down one idea, then a couple more, and suddenly the ideas kept coming and coming. I even tried to shut it off at one point, so I could continue with my browsing. But I finally had to give in to it, sit down at a table and write out page after page after page of ideas.
Writing, thinking, being creative, ideas…those things are like muscles. If we don’t use them, they may hide away for awhile, but they are always there for us to use. I’ve found that, if you keep at it, if you keep thinking and keep writing and keep trying, you will work those muscles and they, in turn, will begin to work for you again.
