Yes! 🙌 I read something recently about grabbing a spark and going with it right then instead of scribbling a note for ‘later’. While I’m always going to be scribbling notes for later, I am trying to take the time to follow one of those more fully sooner rather than later. In fact, that’s my goal for this week—to take two sparks into finished essays.
That is a great goal! I have been trying to write into the spark - even if it is just a paragraph or a voice note. It seems to be working easier for me with reading responses.
I completely get that! I have notebooks filled with ideas, story fragments, opening sentences - so many it's overwhelming. I have decided to use my morning pages as a brain dump, a place to get out all my frustrations and concerns so I can move on. So, I have eliminated tho need to reread those notebooks (though I am still debating if I should burn them now because doing I really want people reading journals of me bitching about my family and debating what color to repaint the bathroom). I have another notebook I call my shards and glimmers, that's where my creative ideas go. That one I will go back to occasionally when I feel stuck but I don't make it a "have to." Hope that helps.
I laughed out loud with the "Do I really want people reading journals of me bitching about my family and debating what color to repaint the bathroom" ! HA! Thank you for that joy this morning.
I burned journals years ago and still have a whiff of regret . If you decide to have a bonfire let me know! It seems like there is opportunity for a ceremony there too.
I go back through my Notes app every few weeks, though I've got writing ideas mixed in with all sorts of other BS. But my handwritten notebooks? Pretty much never. Having said that, I was literally scrolling through Notes last night before bed, and said to myself, "I need to make sure Sarah knows to read this stuff after I'm long gone-- there's so many funny lines in here!" (to me anyway) They'll never see the light of a real, finished story, but I know she'll laugh at least.
Oh, this is so good: "I have made a conscious goal to NOT save things for later and to take the time to use the ideas that I have taken the time to curate and make them something useful."
An interesting challenge.
I also feel thankful for my preaching practice because I have deadlines that involve a live audience at the end. (The prompt board in Centered achieves this too.) My challenge though is to write anything beyond my Sunday sermons. I am going to try this new principle you've introduced here and see...
My writing is a convex mirror held up to my evolving internal self. It is the better, editable version of me that surprises me every time I write. I am always building on my body of words, and never thought about saving my words for later. Some pieces need more time than others to feel complete. And not everything I write is ready to be published, even if it is finished. Having a 'compost heap' or laboratory of experimental musings, scribbles, doodles, and fragments, creates a messy nest of words for my other pieces to hatch and grow and metamorphose into beautiful 'rabbitantbees' for others to read.
Yes! 🙌 I read something recently about grabbing a spark and going with it right then instead of scribbling a note for ‘later’. While I’m always going to be scribbling notes for later, I am trying to take the time to follow one of those more fully sooner rather than later. In fact, that’s my goal for this week—to take two sparks into finished essays.
That is a great goal! I have been trying to write into the spark - even if it is just a paragraph or a voice note. It seems to be working easier for me with reading responses.
I completely get that! I have notebooks filled with ideas, story fragments, opening sentences - so many it's overwhelming. I have decided to use my morning pages as a brain dump, a place to get out all my frustrations and concerns so I can move on. So, I have eliminated tho need to reread those notebooks (though I am still debating if I should burn them now because doing I really want people reading journals of me bitching about my family and debating what color to repaint the bathroom). I have another notebook I call my shards and glimmers, that's where my creative ideas go. That one I will go back to occasionally when I feel stuck but I don't make it a "have to." Hope that helps.
I laughed out loud with the "Do I really want people reading journals of me bitching about my family and debating what color to repaint the bathroom" ! HA! Thank you for that joy this morning.
I burned journals years ago and still have a whiff of regret . If you decide to have a bonfire let me know! It seems like there is opportunity for a ceremony there too.
I go back through my Notes app every few weeks, though I've got writing ideas mixed in with all sorts of other BS. But my handwritten notebooks? Pretty much never. Having said that, I was literally scrolling through Notes last night before bed, and said to myself, "I need to make sure Sarah knows to read this stuff after I'm long gone-- there's so many funny lines in here!" (to me anyway) They'll never see the light of a real, finished story, but I know she'll laugh at least.
Oh, this is so good: "I have made a conscious goal to NOT save things for later and to take the time to use the ideas that I have taken the time to curate and make them something useful."
An interesting challenge.
I also feel thankful for my preaching practice because I have deadlines that involve a live audience at the end. (The prompt board in Centered achieves this too.) My challenge though is to write anything beyond my Sunday sermons. I am going to try this new principle you've introduced here and see...
My writing is a convex mirror held up to my evolving internal self. It is the better, editable version of me that surprises me every time I write. I am always building on my body of words, and never thought about saving my words for later. Some pieces need more time than others to feel complete. And not everything I write is ready to be published, even if it is finished. Having a 'compost heap' or laboratory of experimental musings, scribbles, doodles, and fragments, creates a messy nest of words for my other pieces to hatch and grow and metamorphose into beautiful 'rabbitantbees' for others to read.