When Topics Refuse to Cooperate

I need to be honest with you … I’ve been working on a writing project for a couple of weeks, but the topic refuses to cooperate. This is how the process has gone: I think the ideas are coming together just right. I’m feelin’ the flow … feelin’ the love …

then WHAM … Everything stops.

I regroup, step back, and take a breath. I let it sit–let the thoughts perk for a few hours–then return to the computer, hoping a fresh perspective will get the flow back.

But I get nothin’

I talk with my husband and my friends, hoping a morsel from our conversations will align all the stars in what I’ve been keystroking. A glimmer of an idea surfaces. Maybe THIS will be the glue that pulls it all together. I start writing again … again, feeling the flow, the love, yada-yada …

Then WHAM … everything stops again. Nothin’. I feel like I’m Charlie Brown and Lucy is holding my football with the promise, “Really, Charlie Brown, I won’t pull the ball out from under you THIS time …”

The 50,000 words sitting on my computer look good, in my mind, anyway. After writes and re-writes, I’ve decided to leave it there. It’s not mishmashed per se, but it isn’t what was trying to burst from my brain, either.

I Know You Get It

To all my writer friends, I know you get it. I’m guessing most of you have your own half-written blog posts, works in progress, or stacks of research calling your name.  You have a shelf … a banker’s box … a file on your hard drive labeled, “Not Yet”. We get it. Creativity cannot be forced.

But it can be fostered.

A lesson good writers learn early is to be a good writer, you need to read. I enjoy writing. I enjoy reading what I write. But if it isn’t flowing, stressing over what’s on my computer screen will not make the story come together any faster. I need to give myself permission to step back, re-charge my batteries, and allow the process to happen. God even told Elijah in 1 Kings 17 to beat-feet it from where he was, hide east of the Jordan, and allow the ravens to feed him for a season.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there. So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
1 Kings:2-6 NIV

What’s the Next Step

If you’ve read any of my earlier posts on writing, you’ve seen I try to land on remembering how to focus. I

’m excited about writing, but I’m more excited about doing it right; doing it in a focused manner. When focused writing happens, everything in my world flows like honey. I know my obedience to God plan for me is front and center.

Jesus teaches us how to be focused on what we need to do in Hebrews

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2

My project will come together in good time if I focus. I might not experience whams … but I’m okay with living a non-wham existence.