Shut Up Already

So, yesterday I mentioned that I was trying out an Artist's Date. Writer and creativity teacher Julia Cameron coined the phrase many years ago in her book The Artist's Way. An Artist's Date is time that you set aside to go out and do juicy things to help inspire your creative spirit - take a walk in nature, go shopping at a craft store, treat yourself to experiences that get you out of your daily rut.

For me, the date was a bit simpler, having been tied down at home being baby mama for the past few months. I didn't really need anything flashy. No sir. So I simply parked my butt in a restaurant with some tasty Chinese food and one of my favorite non-alcoholic beverages (iced tea), pulled out a spiral notebook and began to free write. An idea for a novel has been churning around in my head for a couple of months as well as some shorter articles. While sitting there, I finally had a chance to just open up and slap down the words on the page.

Oh, you see, I've got lots of story ideas locked in my head. The problem is I can't seem to tell myself to shut off the part of the brain that tells me all the reasons why they're stupid, why doing something else right now is more important (online shopping, anyone?), why no one wants to read them and even if they did I don't have what it takes to capture it on paper. All the self-defeating stuff that Cameron has spent her life trying to teach people how to push past so they quit drowning their creative self in addictions and distractions.

How on earth did I get to this point?

I spent the early part of my life and career churning out stories for newspapers. Sure, the stories were handed to me: events, people, places forming out of the daily ether rather than in my head. But the writing process is similar. Tied to a daily deadline, I had no choice but to block out time every day to write and produce. I didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time agonizing about whether or not it was good enough or letting myself go off and chase shiny objects (unless there was a possible photo op and news story). I just did it.

I just did it. What a concept!

If I could just make writing a habit, get myself to sit down and push past the daily demands and distractions, even for ten minutes a day...who knows?

I'm on page 2 of the novel now. It's fun and hard all at the same time. The words come out in spurts as the story unfolds in my head. Now I just need to sedate my inner editor/critic and keep going.