All it Takes is the Right Stuff
When I sit down to write, I can go for hours. I'm still new at this, but writer's block is not an issue for me...yet. I have an abundance of ideas, and no trouble writing them down. Instead, I have editor's block. I get stuck on how to make something sound just right. I'll highlight a word I don't like and agonize over it for days. Sometimes, I never really feel like it's right, no matter how much pacing I do in front of my laptop. When this happens, I take to pen and paper.
Sometimes, I'll write the word I know needs to change and then make a list of possible candidates. I read them out loud, enunciating, calling upon them, as if they'll get up and start building a case as to why they should be chosen. It's like a job interview. I try the words out and see if they fit the sentence, the story, and the flow. The last time I tried this, I had been revising and editing for a few hours. I was ultra stuck. I got so frustrated, I began blaming it on the pen I was using. Darn ball-point pen, what do you know! I definitely should have taken a break at that point and had some ice cream, or something.
Yesterday was Christmas, and my sweet sister-in-law gave me a set of gel pens. Each one has a message on it including, stop wishing, start doing, Dream bigger, and my favorite, everyday I'm hustlin'. It was something about how she knew how hard I've been working and how close I was to yelling at the words on the page. Okay, so I did yell at the words on the page. In any case, a set of encouraging pens was all I needed to get the ball rolling, so to speak. They felt smooth, light and filled with all the words I had been looking for a few days earlier. It seems, all I needed was my sister-in-law's positive energy (of which she has loads) and the right stuff just came out on the page. Merci, Édith!
