A Bad Day Writing . . .

 May 23, 2014

Complete this sentence: a bad day writing is . . . For me, a bad day writing is better than a good day doing pretty much anything else. I love the writing process. Even those days when I’m stuck, nothing flows from my pen, are good. On those days I might put my pen and paper away and go for a walk, get coffee at a coffee house or McDonalds, or indulge in chocolate or ice cream.

Everything is fodder for reflection, potential articles, blog entries or scenes for a story. Even when I’m not writing, I’m writing. Sometimes the most fertile ground for writing is precisely when I’m the most stuck. I know if I persevere through eventually the floodgate will open and I’m going again. So I try to rest, enjoy the solitude and quiet that is part of the creative process. I write when the spirit moves me, and when the air is still and I experience no inner movement, I sit and stare off into space, allowing my brain to take its’ time. It is all good.

This isn’t the case for every writer. When I sent this quote to a group of women writers I know, some responded positively, but one said she found the time she spent writing to be difficult, she’d much rather be fishing.

I certainly understand the lure of all of those undone chores, calling my name, or the siren sound of friends I’ve neglected or have yet to meet because I’ve been sitting on my porch swing in semi-seclusion writing and thinking about writing. I sometimes wonder, am I wasting my time, wasting my life, writing words that no-one reads. But for me, the process is a form of prayer. I feel closest to God when I am creating. I am part of God’s creative activity on this earth and this is wonderful. Others have experienced the same sentiment of feeling close to their God when they write.

So, a bad day writing is better than a good day doing anything else, for it is a day with my creative muse, my God. “I’d rather one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” Psalm 84:11a

How about you? How do you complete this sentence? Is there something that you do that brings you closer to your God?

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