WRITER'S BLOCK: CLEAN UP CLUTTER

In my last blog I mentioned that I finally got fed up with being a writer-technician with no heart in my work.  The writer-technician was expressed in my PhD dissertation.

This week I did some shredding of papers that have long accumulated.  Not only did it feel really gratifying, but I found a new area of my writing opened up.

Clearly, then, my clutter had interfered with my writing productivity and creativity.  This experience has added an important element to what I now think is important to the writing process.  Namely, clear the clutter.  And, by the way, I wasn't even aware of how much paper clutter I had till it was gone.

Let me say one more thing about de-cluttering.  I just shredded all the back up information related to my PhD dissertation. It was not as difficult to do as I thought it would be.  I had held out that information for years thinking I would revisit it.  At last I decided there was nothing I would gain from revisiting it.  As I was shredding I began to feel  incredibly relieved .  When I finished  shredding, I knew a burden had been lifted from me.

I feel as if psychological space has been cleared to be filled by new experiences.  I am eager to see what they are.  So, I heartily recommend looking around and noticing what clutter is in your life.  Perhaps clutter that you had so taken for granted that you didn't notice it was there.  And, begin to make a dent in it as way to create psychological space for your writing life.