“My goal is to write every day. I say it is my ideal. I am careful not
to pass judgment or create anxiety if I do not do it. No one lives up
to his ideal.”
―
Natalie Goldberg
I'm at the half way mark of this Paragraph a day challenge, although technically I missed a few days in there somewhere. When I decided to join in I was still in the delirious stages of the flu and I think it was the fever rather than my rational processes which signed me up for this rather public writing challenge. It's been an interesting exercise which I nearly gave up on by about day 9. I was overwhelmed with the difficulty of trying to say something everyday that wouldn't be total drivel for you my gentle reader. The posts seemed insipid, skimming the truth, never
coming near it with their one a day deadlines and the random words that
spilled out boring any poor reader who gifted my words their time.The banality of daily life during and post flu, has not provided much fodder for inspiration worthy of sharing with anyone else but myself and I thought that this challenge might be best served out in the privacy of my much neglected and dusty writing journal rather than in such a public forum as the internet, even if at my digs. However, the public commitment to the challenge has kept me (mostly) honest with showing up and doing it, and it is the showing up and doing it which is the point rather than the quality of the posts and reflections (hence the lack of editing and so on). To this I can only say to you both sorry and thank you for bearing witness to this process. It reminds me of Natalie Goldberg saying that the secret of writing is to just "keep your hand moving", eventually the drivel will bore you enough that you will be forced to go deeper and come up with something true. There is merit in this one paragraph a day, even if not good writing or interesting subjects, muscles are being built in the hope that eventually I will land at a gold nugget, something true and unique, something honest and worthy. I'm hopeful.
There's
no such thing as a writer's block. If you're having trouble writing,
well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving.
Writing is really a physical activity.
Natalie Goldberg
