Just Do It by Andrea

Yesterday marked my turn to post on our blog.  I started more pieces than I care to admit, with limited time to develop anything I deemed worthy of our readers' time and attention. Somehow in the months of not publishing on the blog, my ability to produce something of value has vanished.  It makes me think of quotes I have read over the years which admonish writers to NEVER stop writing because restarting is like trying to tame a lion.  

So I decided to use a strategy I encourage my students to use when they get stuck- power writing.  A power write is simply setting a timer and, with fingers on the keyboard, typing away- letting whatever comes come until the timer goes off.  No censorship, no hesitation, no revision.  

It is not as if I have not been writing at all.  I have been journaling on nine out of every ten days since the start of the new year.  Using the notes app on my phone, I capture snatches of thoughts and writing ideas while driving or waiting in line.  Inspiration for possible essays abound in books from my 2018 reading list.  I recorded lines from the few movies or television shows I have watched. There is an ever growing list of important social justice topics, statistics and questions, observations and ideas on my phone, too.  I have been a writing teacher for many, many years now.  I know strategies to get oneself started.  I know strategies to revise well.  I know the secret of good writing.  Are you ready for it? It’s simply writing.  Writing a lot of words.  Reading a lot of words, yours and other writers, too.  Rereading.  Re-visioning. Rewriting.  Lifting lines. Rinse and repeat. But the pressure to produce something of worth, something which evokes connection, something honoring to my own experiences evade me this time around.  I sat down here, stabbing at these keys, trying make something I have never made before. NEVER.  And like a bolt of lighting I am hit with this bit of truth: this is the actuality of everyday we live. 

We rise to a day we’ve never experienced before. Yet no matter how mundane, routine our lives may be, there is a quiet recognition that we have the opportunity to do something in some way we've never done before.   We get to make something we have never made before.  Exhilarating yet intimidating. 

I put pressure on myself to live at the highest level of my own personal integrity, to make something good and indelible and eternal.  Every. Single. Day. And I am realizing that I approach just about everything this way.  Making dinner: it has to be visually appealing, nutritionally robust and satiating.  It has to be a work of art.  On a Tuesday. Just because. Writing a text message: tone engaging (check), using the exact words for my voice to come through without any possible misinterpretation (check, recheck, revise, check).  Probably this is not a bad thing.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well, they say.  I subscribe to this. 

Pressuring oneself to produce top quality in totality is problematic when production comes to a halt due to paralysis.  And this is what happened here today.  And for no good reason.  As I tell my students, there is no writing police.  You write first for yourself.  If you’ve got anything to say, someone will connect with some part of it.  Put yourself out there otherwise you will never know what you really think or what somebody else might need to hear, too.  The world needs your words.  Take a chance.  Just write.

So here is a note to self and to you, dear reader: 

Pursue excellence, not perfection.  Excellence does not come easy, but perfection is impossible.  Excellence is a matter of habit. Be in the habit of continuous motion despite wobbly and uncertain steps.  Even if there are fits and starts, mishaps and mayhem.  You’re waking up anyway so commit to making something. Turn the power write into a power (whatever you need it to be). Set a timer, mark a due date on the calendar, tell a friend. Do what you gotta do to just do it. You might not know exactly what you’re making. It may not even be good.  It probably won't be good if you haven't done it in a while or are doing it for the first time.  That’s okay.  The art is in the process.   Whatever you produce is simply proof you showed up.  And showing up is good and indelible and eternal. It's what matters in the beginning, middle and end of your story.