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When I’m working on a particularly challenging project, I keep a document open to capture thoughts along the way. Below is an excerpt, embellished and expanded a bit — but entirely real.
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Okay! I’ve set aside the time to write. Here we go.
Whereas I thought last summer that I needed to get my makeup and lighting right and just start shooting, I now realize that I have to start with a script. So here I am, blinking cursor in front of me.
Read MoreThe Notes app on my phone is full of entry codes to buildings, shopping lists, information about how to find my car in this or that parking garage, quotes I found interesting, lists of songs to play, and the truly inscrutable (“Dreamed I was schoolmarm to a teenage Jagger and Richards”).
It’s also where ideas go to die.
I’ve had this blog for just over a year, but I’ve been coming up with blog post ideas for much longer — they are all over the place. Not only that, I have a note from May 4, 2015 that says simply, “Daily blog posts.” Why did it take me nearly four years to follow through?
Read MoreWhat do you do when you run out of ideas?
Seth Godin has written about the nature of writer’s block and the fact that it is invented. It’s designed to let us off the hook when the going gets rough and we’re afraid to make something new – or afraid that we can’t.
It’s amazing the capacity of the human brain to rationalize and make up excuses for why we are the way we are and why we can’t do the things that we need to do, especially when they’re challenging. Indeed, it is the safer thing to do to not write, to not make stuff, to not put our ideas out there.
Read More“I’m sooooo full!” said the ten-year-old at the dinner table, groaning theatrically. A moment later, she perked up. “What’s for dessert?”
Obviously, the special dessert compartment in her stomach still had room. Been there!
I can relate to the child’s situation metaphorically as well as literally. Martha Beck, in her book Finding Your Own North Star, points out that we sometimes find ourselves feeling ill or sleepy when we’re doing something we don’t want to do, yet our symptoms of malaise and fatigue magically clear when we’re doing something that we find fun and engaging.
Read MoreWe’ve seen the moving TED talks where kids in Kenya or India talk about how desperate they are to have an education and how grateful they are to be able to go to school. But to kids who already have the amazing privileges of speaking English, living in the United States, Internet access, and literate parents, formal education doesn’t carry as dramatic a promise of advancement. It doesn’t feel like an incredible gift — it feels like a burden and a bother.
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