Shut up and write

For the past 8 days, I’ve managed one post a day.

Considering that I went for months and months without posting, that’s pretty impressive. Considering I just didn’t have the drive to write before this challenge (500 words a day for 31 days) and I couldn’t get a good grasp on any of the many ideas I had/still have, I’m pretty proud of myself to have made it this far.  I’ve gotten some compliments from a few people, and it’s been encouraging to hear that I’m not just a voice crying in cyberspace. People are reading what I write, engaging with it.  

And it’s brought me to the realization that God is using me and my gifts right where I am right now. In a small way, yes, but He is still using them.  And it’s giving me the push I’ve needed to start thinking about a few non-blog related writing assignments I’m currently considering.  

Clearly there’s still a ways to go from “considering” to “doing”. But I’m getting there … 

It was also really quite neat to see that the ideas just came to me and I was able to – more or less – write about something I’ve been through or thought about on that day or in the last little while.

And I was able to write them in about a half-hour.  With the exception of the first one, they just kind of flowed out of me.  I had ideas, I got excited, and I couldn’t wait until my lunch break to sit down and get it out. Craft it into sentences. Read it over for flow and sense.

Of course, I’d been thinking about them for quite a while beforehand, maybe doing a bit of research and having conversations with people whose opinions I trust. And, might I add, with others whose opinions are vastly different from mine.

It is now day ... nine.  And all I’ve got going through my head is “Shut up and write.”

But about what, exactly?

You wouldn’t know it, but the spaces between some of the paragraphs in this post represent minutes of Facebook stalking … I mean, surfing, finger tapping, brain whirring, head in my hands thinking … and just plain staring at the screen, hoping that I can just get ‘er done somehow.

I am a writer. It’s a gift. I enjoy using it and sharing it with others. I think if I were just to sit on it and not do anything, I wouldn’t be glorifying God, and something in me just wouldn’t be satisfied.  

Sometimes it feels like there are words, ideas that are pushing and shoving their way through my entire being, hoping to be the first one to come out.

And at other times I have the desire to write (like now) … and yet something’s blocking the flow.

I guess they call it writer’s block for a reason.  Or maybe the ideas haven’t fully formed yet.  Or maybe I just don’t have anything to say at that point.

So why am I writing this nonsense now?  I guess to show the process. To show the imperfection, even if it’s only to myself. 

To show the discipline needed to do something. Even something I love to do.

Sometimes you just have to do it.