Your Responsibility As a Writer Is to Simplify and Savor
Finding focus amid a world of distractions for deeper creativity
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simply, simplify.” — Henry David Thoreau
The average person makes around 35,000 decisions each day, according to Psychology Today and other sources.
These include conscious decisions like what you’ll wear today, if you’ll call your mother-in-law back, or what you’ll cook for dinner. We make many decisions subconsciously — thank goodness — or our brains would short-circuit.
As a writer, you pay attention to more details than the average person. You see a story in the flowers growing at the edge of your drive, a connection in how your husband makes his coffee to an idea you started crafting six months ago. Every leisurely walk triggers five more ideas for content, and a shower gifts you with eleven new titles for the next chapter in your book.
Writers seem to have their heads full of details, so it makes sense to follow Thoreau’s advice and simplify every area that we can.
I feel a tremendous obligation to my craft, so much so that I eliminate everything that does not belong in my life. I limit…
