Writing and Resistance

In spite of the fact that the children have been in school one full week now, the amount of actual writing I’ve done is: 0.

Now, it’s true that I had 12 hours or so of household accounting that had to be done, along with a full day of dentist and orthodontists’ appointments, and another half day of making more appointments for haircuts and dog grooming and the cleaning out of heater vents. Then there were four phone calls required to confirm with the dentist that the orthodontist’s recommendation to pull out three of the seven-year-old’s teeth was the right course of action even though she is missing, forever, most of the adult teeth in the front half of her mouth. On top of that there were two phone calls to the insurance company and one to the neurologist, where I waited on hold a full ten minutes just to find out that the doctor had to sign another form before my scrip could be filled — which would take a couple of days because she was out of town (and would require at least one more telephone call to make sure her assistant actually mailed the form after it was signed.

You know, I’m kinda tired just writing that.

Still, I have, in fact, had a little time to write….and I have, in fact, not done so.

Oh, to be sure, I’ve done writing-like things. I went to my writing group. I filled Tweet orders. I read up on all my favorite art/writing blogs. I even did lectio on a passage I’ve been asked to write on – this in preparation for writing said article. But I did not actually write.

Resistance. It is the enemy of all things artistic. Every morning the writer wakes up, eager to put pen to paper, and every morning resistance kicks in to keep the writer from actually doing the one and only thing she really wants to do. It is inevitable. It is part of the game and one cannot play in the writing world without this dark nemesis. What’s a girl to do?

Cram the bastard back down into the dung heap it came from, that’s what.

“Yes, “you cry, your voices in unison against our common foe, “Yes, but how?” Ah, there’s the rub. I think it goes something like this:

Show up at the page.
Put words on it.

What do you think?

Posted in Magpie Girl
Tags: on writing |