Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Welcome to the heart of tax season, when all my energy is sucked up by non-stop clients at the Walmart Jackson-Hewitt tax booth. Between juggling them, juggling COVID law changes, juggling getting enough to eat so I don’t fall over, juggling writing … well, balls are being dropped.
I could say I have “writer’s block”. But David B. Coe had it right when he wrote in a Facebook post way back on July 19, 2017:
Once more, because sometimes we all need the reminder: There is no such thing as “writer’s block.” The phrase “writer’s block” presupposes that writing should be easy, that our prose should always flow like warm caramel. That’s not the case.
Writing is hard. Writing is fits and starts. Yes, sometimes writing is 4,000 words of sheer brilliance in a single sitting. But sometimes it is also 4 words, none of them good, in six hours. It is sitting and staring at the keyboard in dismay. It is self-doubt, it is disappointment. And it is the best job I can imagine having. Ever.
But it is not — it is never — easy. You do not say, “I have writer’s block.” You say, “I am a writer.”
So today’s writing exercise is about writing, to be able to say “I am a writer”.
WRITING EXERCISE: Break out a timer – an hour glass, an egg timer, your phone. Put in a time … 15 minutes, half an hour, and hour. Start the timer. And write. Just write. Go for it.