Words of Encouragement

Hey all.

No story today, but rather just a few words of encouragement for my fellow writers or anyone who wants to BE a writer and just can't quite get the courage up.

Remember, not everything boils down to how many words you get on a page or how many hours your spend tapping away at a keyboard. Part of writing, a large part actually, is allowing your brain to process and consider. Something a lot of people run into is they'll run into Writer's Block and then stall to a complete stop because they don't know what to do and they feel worthless for not writing. A cycle begins where you can't think of what to write and you hate yourself for not writing, you then feel worse and can't think of what to do next and the process starts itself all over again.

I just want to say "It's ok to relax sometimes."

A lot of people now a-days are powered by the Protestant Work Ethic whether they realize it or not. Since birth, through school and work, people have it ingrained that if they aren't PRODUCING then their time has been meaningless. This is powered by that old manufacturing mindset that time spent doing anything but making A THING is wasted.

However, for writer's, you have to be able to take time to create. Words are nothing without meaning and, if you don't have something meaningful to work from than you're, at best, free-writing.

So please...let yourself think. Let yourself relax. Let your mind wander to your thoughts and your passions. Let it twist upon your perversions and your secrets. Enjoy everything that you have available to you no matter your background and let everything you hear and see and smell and touch and taste inspire you. Just let yourself BE.

If you feel the need to write, than write! But if you are beating yourself up because you open up a blank word document and simply stare at a flashing icon, just remember that's it's ok to let yourself be.

You are a writer. Now let yourself write however you need to.


P.S. This applies to ALL of you artist type people. So all of you drawers and painters and game designers and anyone else who just needs to take a minute to breath so your mind can do what it does best: it’s ok to take a minute for yourself. You’re all amazing.