With Urgency

I love writing.  I love journaling.  I think it is so important to who we are as people.  In order to maintain our humanity we must reflect on the things that give us that humanity and the only way that can be accomplished is through the written word.  I am defining the written word pretty broadly here.  A speech is usually written ahead of time.  Broadcasts are made up of written elements.  Theatrical productions begin with written scripts (yes, even improv is performed off of a rudimentary script).  It’s not very often someone can extemporize as cleanly as someone who gives each word thought and due consideration.  

However, I find it difficult to write.  What do I have to say?  Who cares what I have to say?  What if I can’t say what I have to say in 140 characters or less?  And what if I’m in the middle of writing something and I totally run out of things to say?

It takes practice to write; to know how to construct your thoughts and put them on paper (metaphorically).  Tonight is the first time I’ve sat down to write in almost a year.  I used to write often.  Essays, research papers, journals, blog posts, but it is tremendously difficult to carve time and energy out of a day to do any of those things.  There is always another movie to watch.  Another episode of Sherlock to catch up on.  Another game of Mario Kart to play.  Another post to read on twitter.  

It’s not good enough to make time to write.  It’s not good enough because we will always find other things to fill that time.  Easier things.  In order to write we have to make the hard decision.  Like getting up in the morning and exercising.  We just want to stay in bed.  My favorite author, Ray Bradbury, said that he did his best writing first thing in the morning.  When he didn’t want to.  He had to force himself out of bed and in front of his typewriter. He encouraged his readers to hurry.  To leap out of bed as soon as they could and start writing before the first cup of coffee.  He put urgency on writing.  It couldn’t wait.  It needed to happen and it needed to happen now.

I think we try to encourage ourselves to do things by telling ourselves that it’s easy.  The fact of the matter, though, is that most things aren’t easy.  You might wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “This run is going to be so easy!”  But when you hit that first big hill, you curse yourself and call yourself a liar and then, probably, walk.  Or if you do push through, you give yourself a rest day the next morning.  After all, you’ve earned it, right?  Problem is you never hit that hill again, because you know the truth now:  it’s not easy.

If you had known it wasn’t going to be easy to begin with, then you might have approached it differently.  Paced yourself.  Known that you were going to be sore and so stretched to head off that pain.  I don’t know.  The rambling point I’m making is that writing isn’t easy, so don’t try to tell yourself it is.  Instead, meet that challenge head on and take the steps necessary to do it!  Build yourself up mentally and emotionally.

I’m sitting outside in my front yard typing this on a beautiful June evening.  I’m not particularly inspired.  I’m just inspired to write.  I don’t have anything to say, or anything worth hearing, I’m just writing.  All of what I just said was for me.  A kick in the pants.  So, do it.  Write a journal entry, a blog post, write a letter to a friend (nothing is as exciting as getting mail!).  Just write.  For the love of God, just write.