WRITER'S BLOCK: WAKE UP AND WRITE

Pat Schneider has suggested that sometimes it is better when you're writing to read a genre different from the genre you're writing in.  I can appreciate that advice as I find myself reading Pema Chodron's Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion.  Pema Chodron is a Buddhist.  And, the book is a series of short (1-1/2 pages) chapters which can be read in any order the reader wishes, with the goal of helping the reader to become awake to their lives.

In working as a coach with writers and wannabe writers, I often hear them complain that it is difficult for them to write because of numerous external factors — no time due to full time job, full time homemaker, too may obligations, too tired when the day is over, too many interruptions… you get the drift.

Chodron says "We have a certain life, and whatever life we're in is a vehicle for waking up." (p. 31)

I first "discovered" this passage today, but already I can see the value of it in my personal and writing lives as well as for the personal and writing lives of my coaching clients.  Namely, we are where we are in our physical lives.  If we want to write, there is no other time than now.  Everything else is "an excuse" that we need to become "awake" to understanding so we can move beyond it.

So, if you find yourself having difficulty writing, why not keep Chrodron in mind… "We have a certain life, and whatever that life we're in is a vehicle for waking up?"  And, give yourself quiet time to focus on what's getting in the way of picking up your pen or sitting down at your computer.