Get lost in a story. Stay lost in a world.
“I’m just relaying what the voice in my head’s saying.” – Eminem (The Monster)
When the writing is going well, when my fingers are flying across the keyboard, I feel like I’m just a transcriber, maybe a translator. I feel like the stories are already there, tales of a world that I’m just discovering and dusting off to share with all of you. I’m more an explorer, an archeologist, than a writer.
I got to see this amazing art installation a few years ago and every time I get stuck with a writing project, the imagery explodes right back to mind. So many books, so many ideas, all caged up. (Or censored in other ways, as is the case of the tribute.) It feels the same way inside my brain sometimes. But those locks have a key.
So I go hunting for that key in books, movies, anything that feels inspiring, really. And when I get back to the keyboard: freedom.
Every book is a world unto itself. A world built of words. And in a bookstore, a library, or my kid’s bedroom floor, you can find an entire universe to explore.
Photo as a metaphor for life. There’s always one out of place.
A Zen proverb to keep in mind as the new year comes and brings with it the ambitious resolutions we always seem to make:
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
The Christmas season has a tendency to make me feel like a kid again, no matter how old I get. Dickens seems to have had a similar feeling:
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” – Charles Dickens
It’s good to be a kid again, even if just for a few weeks.
There are new worlds right outside your door. You don’t need to journey into the deep rain forests of the Amazon to explore, or venture off into space to seek out new life, and new civilizations. Sometimes you just need to go outside. Find a new park, a new store. Go to a cultural festival, an art show, a farmer’s market. It’s all worth exploring, and for a lot of us, we can learn a lot from the effort. Get outside of your comfort zone.
Even better, grab a book while you’re out there, one from an author with a background different than your own, and bring another new world home to explore later.
I have a love-hate relationship with social media. When I’m not guarded, I fall into its many rabbit holes and lose hours of my life to content designed to do exactly that: steal my attention, my hours. So why do it? Why am I on Instagram? Why am I writing this post right now? To exist. As Austin Kleon says:
“In this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.”
It’s an unfortunate truth, but at least for now, truth is what it is. Maybe if I had a bigger name, say, Stephen King, I could get away with being offline. Of course, King himself is just as prolific with social media as he is with stories, so maybe I’d still be here, still writing, sharing, and trying to connect with readers, new and old.
So, despite my best intentions, here I am.
See you online.
As the new year approaches, I’m thinking a lot about this quote from Isaac Asimov on his writing schedule:
“I don’t have fixed hours, I don’t drive myself, it’s just when I’m not doing anything else, I’m writing, and I don’t like to do anything else.” – Isaac Asimov
Something to consider…
What’s your true north? What calls to you? What guides you, or rather, pulls you to become the person you want to be? For me, every decision I make goes through the filter of family. Does this decision make life better for my wife? My kids? If it doesn’t, it’s not the right decision for me.
I’m not quite where I want to be, but finding this magnetic pull has helped me stop making so many of the mistakes I made when I was younger. It keeps me focused, keeps me moving the right direction, and when I feel I’m drifting off course, gives me a quick way to right the ship.
Justin Williams 