Stick With It

I blame the internet for all my writing woes.

This thought occurred to me today. I was stuck on how to rewrite a sentence so that it would create the desired image in my reader’s mind. I tried some different options, but nothing worked. Sat back and thought for a minute. Nothing came to mind. The devil on my shoulder whispered take a break, go check email, see what’s happening in the news. Which is the exact wrong thing to do. And of course it’s exactly what I did.

Back in the day—waaaaaay back in the day, we didn’t have the internet to cheerfully go look at when stuck. Instead, we gazed out the window, or got up and walked around for a minute. Maybe we stood at the kitchen sink, grabbed a glass of water (plastic bottles of it were not ubiquitous then, either), and looked out the window some more. Pet the cat, use the restroom, return to the desk. THE ONE THING WE DID NOT DO WAS LOOK AT THINGS ONLINE. And thus we did not break our train of thought or go down a rabbit hole for half an hour.

We stuck with it because we had no other choice. There wasn’t the option to do much else. Now, do let me tell you that I love and adore the internet with all my heart and soul. But sometimes I long for the days before it was in every home. I long for it not to be a constant distraction and a constant temptation.

Because the best way to get writing done is to stick with it. As Heather Demetrious, my meditation (and writing) teacher says, stay on the cushion. The only things you’re allowed to do are write or look out the window. BECAUSE LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW DOES NOT BIND YOUR BRAIN TO DISTRACTING THOUGHTS. (Side note: this is one reason meditation is excellent for your writing practice.)

The only way to get writing done is to stick with it. Go to the page and write. Put one sentence on the page, and then another one, over and over and over again. As Margaret Atwood said, “A word after a word after a word is power.”

Stay on the cushion. Stick with it.