Some Notes on Writing

Responding to a lament about writing on a GTD Listserv:

On a GTD listserv, someone was speaking to the trouble they were having in getting themselves to write, and there was some commentary about why it was so hard to write. I have another experience, and posted it there, then realized, hey I can post it on my own blog!! So here's my personal story about writing.

I'm a writer and I write every day or almost every day for the last --almost 40 years. I am also a psychologist and professor, so I do other things as well, but writing is probably my first love in terms of something that puts me in a "flow" state. Analyzing data from my research also leads me to a flow state, but not with the same ease and fluidity. I don't write fiction, I write research reports, articles, personal and political commentary, reviews, notes to students, notes to colleagues, case studies, just about anything I can think about. In fact, anything I think about at all, I think about in writing. I have an @writing category in contexts, and I also schedule in 7 to 10 or 11 AM as prime time writing time. That doesn't mean I always use it for writing, I may be needing to deal with emails that came in, possibly having to do with my research, or teaching, or this or that. So I have to skip writing that morning. Sometimes when I'm into my sleeping in in the morning and staying up late at night, I write in the evening as a way to come down from the day. Writing puts me in a flow, maybe an alpha state, so I hate not writing.

How it Started
I don't know how it got to be this way but I think it started with daily reports to a very close friend and mentor. I was trying to write my way out of some mess I had gotten myself in, a really terrible relationship. Everytime I thought I was going to call some guy who I knew I should stay away from, instead of making the phone call, I went to the typewriter (in those days I didn't have a computer) and said whatever was happening, and it worked, I didn't make the phone call. I always say I wrote my way out of trouble and that is not an exaggeration. As time went on I expanded, but I always need to have an immediate "audience" or what I call a "reader" or "readers." I still do, the reader changes, the circumstance varies throughout the day, but the writing is steady and the source of enormous pleasure. I think it really does put me in a meditative state, my blood pressure goes down, heart rate goes down, and it just works that way. I recommend to anyone who feels stuck about writing that they have at least one reader. If I'm sending something out for publication in a journal I edit and re-edit at least five or even seven or eight times, and it always improves. Towards the end I edit every single line outloud, and play with the sentences.

Always writing in the back of my mind..
Someone who I was talking to once about writing, on hearing how I could sit down and write ten pages and not know where the time went, said "you must be writing nonconsciously all the time, for it to just come out like that, as if it were already written." I started paying attention to the underground thinking we all do, and sure enough, I found myself working on sentences while day dreaming and doing who knows what other things. So that is how that happens, and he was right, I had something already written under the surface before I sat down and started writing. My best advice is to write every day, write endless emails or letters to a friend or two who is willing to be a reader. Write about your daily life, the mundane, the things that give you trouble and the things that are easy. It becomes a habit and something you can't do without. I say sometimes that I think with my fingers, and this is how it feels to me. If I am having trouble explaining something to someone, I know that if I sit down at the keyboard it will be easy. I tend to be too wordy (witness this post) but I don't let that stop me. I long ago discovered that if I was having trouble getting something down, I just had to think to myself "who is looking over my shoulder?" and figure out who was I worrying about, who might disapprove of me. Having located the problem, I could make sure that the person was not able to look over my shoulder, and on I could go free from criticism. I would love to be able to write fiction, but so far that has alluded me. Maybe in the future I'll figure that one out.

Write Daily and Make it Real
Write daily, have a reader, make it real --about your real life-- make time for it and avoid feeling self-indulgant (this is easy to say and hard to do), and just write your heart out, it gets so easy you can't do without it. I guess its like runners feel about running, or basket ball players feel about playing, or violinists feel about the their playing music... its got its own reward that is intrinsic, needs no other success to keep me going. Eventually if you become a really active writer there are many ways you can use it in career ambitions, depending on your field and interests. But even without extrinsic rewards, it remains a source of pleasure and perhaps a way to put a foot print somewhere and feel like one is contributing to life on our planet.