Embracing What Scares Me Most About Writing
Some real and most self-created challenges
I’ve often talked about my hatred for blank documents. If I don’t already have a topic and a few pointers worked out in my head, I seldom open the work folder on my laptop. My imagination runs amok, and I find the gaping white walls and blinking cursor threatening. I can smell the failure a mile ahead.
Buckling under the pressure of not being able to write and staring at my poor numbers of the month, I am known to furiously give up. I try again later, but the bitterness remains like a coffee stain that doesn’t wash out.
Today I started writing about an hour and a half after cracking the screen open, and the world did not end. It’s raining outside, and this evening I resolved to use the calming ambiance to not measure my productivity. I shouldn’t care if it takes me twice the amount of time to decide. Maybe I won’t write the article that will definitely do better — relatively, and that’s okay.
The precipitation didn’t land as promised and turned into a lengthy scattered thunderstorm. Lots of lightning but no pitter-patter, just like my keyboard. So I did what any self-respecting adult would do and played a new playlist on Youtube with rain effects and vibey music. They promise to get me to focus, and once you’ve figured out…
