March 8, 2007 at 7:41 pm
· Filed under Musings
After eagerly anticipating my site “going live” and the chance to blog regularly, I find that ever since the wonderful Leah Maclean showed me the way and set me free to write to my heart’s content, I have had a brain-freeze. I have started numerous posts, only to be lost for words, and reluctantly log-off without publishing. I imagined entertaining, educational and life-changing words of wisdom would just flow from my fingertips (just like they seem to for Patti Digh) once I had the tools - if only that was all I needed.
So, contemplating my plight, I reflected on how much my inner perfectionist keeps me a prisoner offline too - I pick up the paintbrush all excited, only to find it stops just short of making a bold statement on the canvas. I start another chapter in my book, then stop when the inner perfectionist starts harping on about the irrelevance and pointlessness (is that a word?) of my words. I agonise over writing proposals, taking up every single minute till the deadline - making life *hell* for myself and those nearest and dearest as I struggle to make it “perfect”.
Enough! This is my public declaration that I am evicting this tiresome tenant that has been in residence in my life for far too long… I look forward to writing more regularly - keep an eye out for the spelling misteaks.
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You are definitely not alone Karynne! The fact that the tools for writing and publishing are sooo accessible has also meant that more people know about creative blocks. Just do a search on “bloggers block” and you will feel amoung friends 
Just be you and let the wisdom (or the cr@p) flow as it will.
oh, my. While I appreciate the very idea that words flow from my fingertips, it is more like that wonderful quote from Hawthorne, “easy reading is damn hard writing.” So thank you for the generous compliment, but please disabuse yourself of that notion!
One of my favorite quotes about writing is this one: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” (Gene Fowler). I wouldn’t think of offering advice, except to say that writing - like life - answers to a clear intention. If you know in your heart why you are writing, where you are standing telling your story, who you are telling it to, and the occasion for your speech, the words will come and line up in service to that intention. Eventually. (Writing isn’t an inspired art. It’s simply a habit).
SharonM wrote @ April 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how many of us want to go straight from not doing something to doing it perfectly. Congrats on putting fingers to the keyboard and paintbrush to pallet and here’s to lots of laffing about mistaks.
Cheers, sharon (a fellow perfectionist)
