Maybe writers should try painting

For about a decade I’ve written almost daily and in the past 7 months I don’t think a day has gone by that I haven’t written.

But I recently started to wonder if I should stop writing. Not altogether but to simply take a break. I’m not sure what the benefits would be but it would definitely be a challenge.

Writing is embedded in me, it’s part of who I am. It’s the thing I do when I’m bored, inspired, overwhelmed, thinking, planning or looking to capture a moment or feeling.

I suppose like with any creative thing it’s good to take breaks and refresh your mind. Or even try creating in a new medium, painting for example.

How strange it would feel to pick up a brush instead of pen. It would be like flexing a new muscle or an old one in a new way.

But perhaps in that space of strangeness, newness and unfamiliarity there’s something worth exploring.

In-flow

I’m experimenting with a different kind of way of writing. It’s less rigid and less forced yet still has a focus.

I’m writing In-flow, from a place where the words pour out simply and with ease. It makes daily blogging much easier and to be honest maybe it’s just a result of blogging daily for over 3 months.

It’s been over 200 days now, the writing habit is well and truly ingrained into my lifestyle.

But it feels good to be in a space where I don’t have to try so hard to come up with what to write. Every. Single. Day.

Tortured writers and the appeal of tragedy

And sometimes we write simply out of necessity.

It’s not that we have groundbreaking points to make or ideas to share but instead that we feel drawn to putting pen to paper or tapping away at keys.

It’s something we do for ourselves, everyone else is secondary because no matter how many people read, comment or enjoy these words they don’t really know what it took to pour them out.

I think that in a lot of ways that’s exactly how it should be.

We all go through things in life but some of us just choose to express it through the medium of words or maybe the words chose us.

But we don’t have to be these tortured writers who know nothing more than the tragedies of life. When we focus too much on being that way we fall into thinking that we need those things in order to write.

We think that no good words can come from days of sunshine and laughter which causes us to constantly seek out experiences that evoke feelings that get us to that mental place of tortured-ness.

On the other hand maybe we’re already in that place and writing is the only thing that helps.

It might not be writers block

If you want to write something but nothing good comes to mind, you might think say that you have writers block.

And so perhaps you take a break from writing, convinced that you have nothing good in you to pour out at this time.

But you’ll be back to writing once the cloud clears and all your good ideas are back because what’s the use in writing if it isn’t good.

However there’s a second option, to keep writing. Even when you think it’s bad or when you know it’s not your best. Do it for the practice or for the routine.

You might even find that what you thought was writers block is just a sentence or 2 of ‘bad writing’ and after that you’re back to your usual flow.

A writers confidence

My writing habit was born from journaling which explains why I write with such confidence.

I’m used to writing about my thoughts on life and things I’ve experienced, in fact I’m incredibly comfortable doing it.

Granted a blog is more open than a journal but the practice is the same.

It’s been more than a decade and since I first started journaling and more than 7 years since I started my first blog.

And looking back over 10 years, my writing has improved so much. I can’t promise I’m the best at it but I’m confident that I’m better than I used to be.

Best of all, it’s something I love to do.