Writing in the middle of things

"You want to be able to create in the middle of things, or also you will not create."  This is taken from Eric Maisel's Coaching the Artist Within (p.92).  It is a powerful statement.   He gave as an example of the truth of this statement a man by the name of James Jones who made his fortune from books like From Here to Eternity.  You probably know or have seen the movie by that name.  Jones gave money to some writers so they could quit their day jobs and write.  What he discovered was that they did NOT write under these very favorable circumstances.   So, writing "in the middle of things" is what needs to be done.

We often find or discover reasons (excuses?) to not write.  Often they sound completely legitimate.  For example, the world is a crazy place right now and I simply can't concentrate.  Or, I have to work full time and have a family and then I'm just too tired by the weekend  And, oh, on the weekend I have family responsibilities and errands.  Sound familiar?

Despite the complexities of life, with a plan it is possible to come up with time to write.  Is it really true that we can't find 15 minutes a day.   Just 15 minutes?  Or is it that we're choosing to do something else?  If we took only 15 minutes a day for five days a week, that would be 1-1/4 hours per week.   That's 456 hours a year.  How many pages can be produced with 456 hours per year?  If work is eight hours a day times five days a week, that's 40 hours a week.  So for 456 hours, we would have 10 weeks of writing a year.  Not bad!

When we break things down into smaller pieces, miraculously they become do-able.

I make sure, regardless of what other writing I do that may be public, to write in my journal every day.  This means that since life is complicated, in the course of a month (30 days) I probably write at least 24 times.  Rarely less.  Sometimes more. These journal entries are meditations for me that I usually do in the morning since they set a positive tone for my day.   Only occasionally do I write for less than 30 minutes.  And still I will do other writing.   I cannot imagine a day without writing.

Once we cannot imagine our day without some kind of writing, suddenly the time emerges, even if it's only 15 minutes.  I have seen this happen over and over again with many people I have worked with as a writing coach.  We cannot wait for the perfect moment to occur.  As Eric Maisel says, we must write "in the middle of things."