How my little black book helps me write

I have this adorable little black book.  You thought I was going to say dress, didn’t you?  You got a creeper thing going on, wanting to see me all decked out in a well fitted black dinner dress, with high heels, and a delicate white pearl necklace?  You want to see how I looked the day I met the interview lady at Huffington Post and…

No, silly, that was the day I almost became a famous blogger and almost went there.  My black dress does look great with my gray hair.  And I probably would’ve considered wearing it for the interview.  But, I digress.

Today, I’m not feeling famous or much like writing.  So, this post is about how the little black book helps me write.

It is adorable in my favorite way – quirky.   The cover is creepy.  I would’ve never given it a second glance hadn’t someone recommended it to me.  But, the contents are just what I need when I’m lacking the motivation to write.  I have read one page every day since I bought it.  It’s not a sit-down, read it cover-to-cover type of book.  Walking on Alligators – A book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy.

Talking about skeletons…and alligators…and scary things that go bump in the night.  Instead of getting up on time today, I rolled over and fell back into a deep sleep.  I wasn’t ready to get up or feed Dessy when she thumped her way up on the bed and sauntered across my entire body.  I laid still so she’d think she had killed her food source and would move on to the Mr.

It worked, and I woke up an hour and a half later.

I’m not springing into action on time this week at all, and it sucks.  This time change is kicking my ass, and I find it de-motivating.  Coffee provokes, some.  So, I filled my super-duper motivational cup of coffee, and grabbed my little black book and shared a reflective moment to get me in the mood for writing this morning.

When I read today’s meditation, it hit me right smack in my tired eyes and challenged my desire to skip writing a blog post.  My mind was filled with noises – why do I write a blog, why do I spend time doing that instead of paying bills, or exercising, or reading, or cleaning, or washing the dishes from dinner last night.  Why…why…why…no one cares anyhow…go ahead, just skip a day, I don’t have any ideas anyhow…I’m in a boring mood…and my thoughts are worthless…and…dammit it is only 17 degrees out and…

The place I’d rather be writing isn’t in our staycation plans.  Sigh…

I had to find motivation elsewhere.  I wasn’t giving myself any help with my shitty thoughts.  The location isn’t what matters to me.  I don’t need to go far away, soaking up the tropical sunshine to write.  I love writing no matter where I’m at.  I just needed to get past the groggy brain and write.

And my little black book came through yet again.  The results aren’t filled with perfect words, not a post that will bring me fame and fortune, and not a free vacation either.  But words did come, and I wrote despite my writer’s block.  That’s what counts and matters to me.

I hope you and the author will forgive me for not getting permission to share an excerpt, but I just can’t resist.  If I have to fight off alligators or skeletons, so be it.  But, if you’re like me and struggling today to find words to write, you’ll appreciate this passage:

“[Journal Entry] – Again, blank discouragement.  Have no heart to write anymore.” – George Gissing

“George Gissing wrote nineteen novels in the course of his career – writing steadily, writing when it rained, writing when street repairs outside his window raked his nerves but always writing. 

It is possible to write well when you are in a bad mood.  It is possible to be productive when your heart feels frozen.  

It is possible because that’s what writing is.  It is perverse and paradoxical.  Depressed days don’t necessarily result in depressing writing.  On those very days, your writing may sing.  

We don’t know where writing comes from.  It comes from a complex, almost alchemical place within.  We can’t even be sure that the place within cares much what the emotional “weather” is like in the place without.

If you have resolved to write and to be a writer, write today.  Write anyway.  Don’t let sagging emotions rob you of your writing.  You have something to write.  It wants to be written today.”

What are your tricks for writing through the blahs?