Revealing a Little Too Much & Losing My Mysterious Persona

While I am sure that all of you are “real” writers, dedicated to honing your craft, scribbling in notebooks while your car idles at a red light, journaling in the bathtub and spending your evenings in front of your computer, I will confess that I do not write as frequently as I should. I know that a common practice is to write a little each day—no matter what. And that as a writer, writing should be of utmost importance, coming before other obligations, interests and hobbies. But, since I am confessing, I will reveal to you all that I do not always put writing first. In fact, sometimes I put it close to the end of the list. Does this make me not a “real” writer? I don’t know. All that I do know is that sometimes I procrastinate. I ruminate about ideas, kick them around, and then sometimes kick them to the curb before they are even actualized on the page. This means that while I am frequently gifted great lines from the muses as I take a shower in the morning, as I take a walk or as I make dinner, I often fail to stop what I am doing in order to give myself over to my craft. This means that I do not churn out numerous new works very frequently and that if it wasn’t for the monthly deadline of Get Lit, I am positive that I would find weeks going by without even a scrap or bit of new material.

If you are secretly similar to me, I give to you some links to writing activities that will hopefully throw you head first into creating some new poems or stories…just in time for this Saturday’s reading.

365 five-minute writing exercises

Language is a Virus

13 Writing Prompts by Dan Wiencek (as found on McSweeney's website)