What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing -- and can you eliminate it?
A furphy because
everything I do, in some
way contributes to
my writing. At home,
as a Mum, in my day job,
doing mundane things:
all grist for the mill.
Some things do stand in the way.
Sometimes I avoid.
Sometimes I am scared.
Some days I don't feel like it.
The laze and haze of
low grade depression.
I don't always make the time.
Sometimes I cheat and
backdate my blog posts
(no doubt you have noticed this!).
But this is OK.
Writing's always there.
It's my strength, my art, my craft.
It's how I'm making
my mark on the world.
So I don't feel there's need to
eliminate things.
Everything is how
I need it to be, and I'm
learning to trust this.
I have to agree with you and disagree with the venerable Mr. Babauta, since EVERYTHING in one's life really can be "grist for the mill" (a favorite saying, though I rarely get to use it!) for ones' writing.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to eliminate chores because we don't like to do them, but another to eliminate those things because they get in the way of our writing - believe me it's not easy to write that last bit since one of my words for the year was ELIMINATE!! ;)
This reminds me of a quote from Alan Cummings in the movie "The Anniversary Party":
"For a writer, nothing's sacred"
Including one's depression - writing about such things can be helpful for others as well as ourselves. I know from experience that depression is not easy to live with and that we ALL will experience it at some point in our lives...
Thanks for this great post, my friend! =-)