I hope you're healthy. I hope your heart isn't hurting. And, either way, I hope you know that you're not alone (but I will guard your solitude, if you desperately wish you were).
First: Permission not to write right now.
Second: Permission TO write right now.
Either one is A-Okay. The world needs people who are doing what lights them up - all the time, every day, and especially now. If writing lights you up, do it. If it doesn't, then why torture yourself? (Or us). Do what feels like a YES, like YUM, like MORE PLEASE.
This social upheaval is a season. Either it will be okay, or it will pass. (My new favorite Norwegian proverb. Actually, the only Norwegian proverb I know). Also: All. Things. Pass. Do you know anything that doesn't?
Regardless of where you're at with your writing right now, I come bearing good news:
As a writer, you have been training for the world to fall apart your whole writing life. Because uncertainty is what we writers swim in.
From not knowing the outcome of a story to whether or not that story will sell to being uncertain as to what will happen inside you or on the page each and every time you sit down to write. Will the story come together or fall apart? Will the Inner Critic win today? Will you be deep in flow? Will you give up? Will you be interrupted? Will you remember why you do this in the first place?
The uncertainty we experience as writers has often been painful. But it turns out, it's our superpower. Being a writer is one of the least certain jobs or passions you could ever have. So in times of global uncertainty (and, camerado, ALL of life is uncertain), you are positioning yourself to more elegantly navigate that feeling of groundlessness. And guess what? From a physics standpoint, we--the entire universe--is in a perpetual state of free fall. Moments like this, when we share and have each other's backs so we can write in community are how we catch each other along the way.
If there's anything I've learned as a writer, it's that the more I relax into uncertainty instead of fight it, the more I feel like a steady ship's captain in a storm.
I've had so much practice with the rug being pulled out from under me. I've become so accustomed to having to pivot when I reach story tangles and career roadblocks and rejection and just the sheer not knowing if my gambles will pay off.
Case in point:
I have a book coming out on April 7th. When all the bookstores are closed. And you know what? I'm bummed sure, but I'm okay. I really am. (But, also, I hope you snag a copy. This one hits all the sweet spots we need right now about what to do when things fall apart) I'm holding fast to my love of the book itself and I can let everything else go. I can't control what happens. I can only show up, do right by the work, and then let go. (It's a paradox, isn't it? You must let go to hold fast.)
What's kept me steering through the storms of uncertainty is my love of words.
Writing them and reading them. Even if I just have a few minutes in a day to get some words down, even if that's all I have, I've reconnected to what keeps me from being thrown overboard. I've held fast. To myself. To my dreams. To how I best show up in this world and serve it.
Gifts From Me To You Right Now:
Build the writing life you long for.
This sneak peek offers loads of resources to help you find and stay in flow. If you decide later to subscribe to my newsletter, you get the whole free 30-Day program. Click below to download the sneak peek immediately.
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In this month's Rough Draft, I’ve got the perfect writing process/exercise for when you're feeling overwhelmed, mindfulness hacks for creatives, and loads of exploratory questions to find what feels most delicious to you right now.
And if you want to jump on this Sunday's free Dandywood Circle call with me to talk all things writing during social distancing, you’ll get the link right when you sign up for the newsletter.
Sunday at 2:00 PM EST. A recording of the call will be available on the homebound resources page later that day, in case you miss it.
Send me an email with any questions you want answered, or ask on the call.
A little heads up: I've been building a community for us all on Mighty Networks for some time now. It's not ready yet, but I can't WAIT to share it with you when it is. Just know it's coming SOON. Email me if you have any wish lists for the ultimate writing sisterhood.
Hold fast, friends.
