Several people have asked me how I can come up with something to write every morning. I can’t! Some days, I can sit for hours staring at a sentence, rearranging and rewriting the words over and over again. Other days, the ideas come like a herd of wild horses and I can’t find the sentences to corral them. When uninterrupted time and inspiration coincide, then I’m in a beautiful zone.
Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, says the following about writing:
“Being a writer is like taking pictures of weather. You have to be there, but so does the weather. If either of you don’t show up, the day is a loss. So, the key to writing is to always be there and hope the weather shows up too.”
I really like this analogy. If I were trying to take pictures of a certain cloud formation, I wouldn’t say: Well, I have 10 minutes this morning. I think I’ll go out and click a few pictures of some cumulonimbus clouds. No, I would have to be patient, be willing to stay outside for however long it took, till the clouds emerged. Now, if it so happened that there were only cirrus clouds on a particular day, then I would probably capture their image even though I set out in search of a different cloud formation.
Every day I sit and wait for the words. Some days they show up; other days I wait alone. I write madly on some days and just sit and think on other days. Most of what I post on this blog is written a week ahead. I like to tweak, edit, and add as my thoughts sit and simmer. Word stew tastes better the longer it sits. The flavors blend and absorb into the pieces. However, there have been times when I read something the next day and it felt stupid. Then I delete the whole thing and start again.
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