A Note on Writing in the Moment
In a world where we are told to 10x everything, how do we quiet the noise?
I like to think of myself as a well-oiled machine. I work at a pace of about 100mph and I am the textbook definition of type-A. There is nothing more satisfying than checking items off my to-do list, moving items from “To-Do” to “Done” on my Kanban board, and a clean inbox.
However, this proves a problem when it comes to my writing.
All I want to do is finish and publish.
The more I publish, the more of a writer that makes me, right?
The quality always suffers as I rush to hit “done” and check writing off my list. Even right now, I am typing at a swift 110 words a minute, arguably faster than I am even thinking, and I know I can’t be the only one who does this.
As writers, shouldn’t we be falling in love with the process? Enjoying tying words together to tell powerful stories? Why are we so obsessed with pumping out the most content?
The goal of writing shouldn’t be a finished piece, it should be to learn from the journey of putting our thoughts to paper.
But there is so much noise telling us to hurry up. Maybe our day jobs are calling or maybe there is a mound of laundry to be done. Maybe our friends are waiting at a local bar and drinking is the only thing that drowns out the fact you can’t relax for a second and you’re not even living the life you want.
As writers, shouldn’t we be falling in love with the process?
Then there are the news articles, the books, the tv shows, all of the things I am suppose to consume.
How do I make time to create when I have so much consumption to catch up on? My work doesn’t even live up to what is already out there.
We play music too loud to drown out our own thoughts.
I don’t even know the line between what are my thoughts and what thoughts are someone else’s?
If we feel more comfortable with our own thoughts, we can drown out the noise.
If we enjoy the process, we can stop rushing to finish the journey.
