in general.

30 Aug 2011 57 Comments

by mary kathryn tyson in about blogging, just write! campaign

it has been my goal from the beginning to write every day on my blog. (read: i didn’t know that was a crazy goal at the time because i had no idea what i was doing.) for the first several months, i made good on this goal. once in a while, i found i had not much to say but on days you didn’t hear from me, it is more likely i was out-of-town or i just plain didn’t have the time that day.

and then at some point in the last several months, i’ve found it harder and harder to squeeze something out each day. a large part of this is because my schedule changed this summer and it was much easier to write each day when i sat at a desk all day. but i still haven’t made writing a part of my new every day routine, which has been frustrating for this 98% left-brained (ahem, catherine ) creative.

see, i publish what i write almost immediately – either for that day or the following, or i pre-post for a particular date or reason. but by the time you read what i’ve written, it has taken anywhere from 1-4 hours to weave together finely-crafted words i am pleased enough to publish. all thoughts and words are my own, but i am careful to edit out unnecessary fillers and fluff. what you see is what you get (which is pretty true of me in general). i don’t have draft one and draft two (or four or ten). i edit as i go, not after i’ve finished. not that i edit my thoughts, but i edit the amount of words i use to express them. i’ve deleted entire paragraphs if i haven’t found a better fit for it elsewhere.

needless to say, it’s taken me a while to get there by the time it gets here.

i enjoy writing.

but if i don’t have 4 hours to put toward it, then i won’t do it at all (also true of me, in general).

(i’m a perfectionist. i can’t help it.)

(but not for you, just for me. you’re fine just the way you are, i promise.)

(hello, grace meet self. self, call your therapist.)

i don’t like not being here every day. i’m relational – i don’t like not connecting with y’all. mostly, though, i don’t like being stuck in a creative rut. 

but i need to afford myself balance. at the risk of not publishing The Perfect Piece, i just need to write, even if no one reads it. even if it’s just not that good by my own standards. (there’s always tomorrow.)

(i can’t believe i just said that. i think i need my inhaler.)

my friend kim sent me an email after last friday’s 5mf to remind me why she enjoys reading what i write. she and i have exchanged emails too many to count over the last year. in general, i write the way that i speak. but, in an email, i am way more of a stream-of-consciousness writer. of course i put thought into what i’m saying, but i edit myself far less than i do here.

kind of like a five-minute friday.

sweet little tay-tay has said those are her favorite posts here (which, truly…really? thank you so much, tay-tay.)

so, i have an idea. i don’t know if it’s a good idea (we’ll find out), but it’s a personal experiment to help me keep the juices flowing without being too hard on myself or costing 17 hours.

my two biggest struggles are a.) crafting the right words around a subject or story and b.) having making the time and creating the space to do it. so for the month of september, i’m going to write every day like it’s a five-minute friday. i’m filling up a jar of one-word prompts for myself and each day, i will pull from my jar and let it fly. if you have one-word ideas – by all means, let me have them! i’ll throw them into our collective jar.

while i promise not to think too hard (if at all) and only spend five minutes on content, i will be honest with you and say i will very likely edit along the way (because I CAN’T STAND my own spelling and grammar mistakes) but my commitment to myself is that i would just write anything at all, and that i wouldn’t spend half-a-day doing it.

i’m wondering if this idea appeals to any of your creative spirits?

i would love for you to join me, if you need the creative boost or you’re stuck in a time-rut.

you can either fill up your own jar or you’re welcome to use my prompt and either add a link in your comment or fill up a comment space here if you don’t have your own blog. if you like the idea but aren’t experiencing the same blocks, then just participate on the day(s) you want to. we’ll call it the one-word challenge (i know. brilliant. BRILLIANT!) and we’ll just see what happens.

we won’t do this on wednesdays as we continue our study of romans. but we will do it all other weekdays. on fridays, i’ll still participate in 5mf with the gypsy mama and i encourage you to do the same. (so, really, i’ll just be writing on my own prompts three days a week. see? nothing to it.)

many thanks to the gypsy mama for ever coming up with 5mf, which inspired this idea. also to kim & tay-tay for the reminder that i’m at my best when i’m just me, plain and simple. (in general.)

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