The Story Breaks

My best writing is stream of consciousness in the first draft, and then revisions to help connect the story to something happening in the world. If I think too hard about message when I sit down to write, the story breaks. In this way, my training as a communications pro interferes in the early stages of my creative writing.

This month my intention is to publish daily posts. I got off to a good start because I was able to write some new things, and also riff off of posts from two 30-day writing challenges I did this year. The experience provides information about my writing eco-system which is three steps:

• Private journal: stories, themes, and ideas begin to transition from lived experience to writing
• Semi-private blog: “shitty first drafts” that mostly just my friends see.
• Public blog: 2nd draft material

I am a maker, and lover of refined content. And the experiment here is to observe how the story changes when it is created in public.

Over the coming 15 days I have a roster of story points I want to touch, but the story is currently blocked. I want to write about the Women’s March in DC, and connect it to the vote in Alabama — speaking specifically to white ladies like me. I see the move for white people to distance themselves from those who voted in Alabama, and I think we actually need to do the opposite and not be afraid. I want to understand what is going on with those white women voters who are helping hold together a racist, sexist system. My voice shakes when I try to talk about this in writing, so that is what I’m going to work on over the next couple of weeks.