Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (via Leo Babauta @zen_habits)

How DARE anyone think I do ANYTHING that doesn’t contribute to my writing? Don’t you think I would already have eliminated my stumbling blocks IF I COULD? Maybe I don’t even WANT TO WRITE – have you thought of that, huh?

um…

I don’t think animosity was part of Leo’s plan when he formulated the question. Perhaps… just perhaps… my reaction was a wee bit extreme. Didn’t Shakespeare say something about excessive protesting?

CLEARLY, I HAVE SOME ISSUES.

by Meredith Harris / flickr

I love writing. I love writing blog posts. I love writing stories. I’ve even been a paid writer for television, magazines and the web.

BUT IT FEELS LIKE I NEVER WRITE.

I certainly don’t write as much as I wish I did. Or as much as I think I should. And that’s where the defensive reaction to today’s prompt is rooted. In the SHOULD.

THE GUILT.

Realizing I feel guilty about my relationship with writing, with words, with the blank page, does not answer Leo’s question, however. The answer to his question is even more obvious…

TELEVISION

Yes, my lovelies, I sit in front of the television each day, letting myself be seduced by cowboys, vampires, mystery writers and the occasional Brit. My laptop sits across the room, silently judging me. The drawers of my desk sadly sag with the weight of files full of story ideas. My inspiration boards hang in full view, alternately sulking at and mocking my allegiance to the remote control.

All I have to do is refrain from pushing one little red button – a tiny knob that contributes nothing to my writing…

All I have to do is eliminate from my nightly ritual a check-in with the tube – a glowing box for which I’m charged a criminally insane amount…

All I have to do is let the space around me be free from distraction…

Can I do that? YES.

But do I WANT to do that? Ahhhh… I don’t have an answer to that question today. Or, honestly, I guess I do. For today, and just today, the answer is NO.

The work lies in letting that answer be OKAY.

How would you answer this prompt?

the challenge

Today is the first day of @binduwiles‘ challenge, 21.5.800, and I am absolutely terrified. I’m feeling completely overwhelmed by life at the moment. My TO DO list is a roving monster of infinite size and, worse yet, it’s a monster with whom I very much want to be friends. The majority of items on it are things I REALLY WANT TO DO. But I’m tired and sick and emotional and unanchored, all of which has a funny effect on the monster and transforms it into a very intimidating beast. My body is betraying me. My head is freeze-dried. The white noise of the world has become a cacophony of echoes.

This challenge could not have come at a better time.

I find sanity in writing. Putting words to paper – any words, in any form, to anything resembling a blank, white page – SILENCES my brain. It is a strange alchemy that I care little to explain. I’m simply grateful for having stumbled upon the phenomenon. One of my biggest life challenges, however, is letting myself obtain that level of sanity.

I love yoga. I love how aware of my body I become when I do it. I love how strong and supple my limbs become. I love how I can feel SPACE within, and through, me. I love the rooting that happens, the invisible threads that develop between me and the ground, between my physical being and the physical earth. I love sinking into the floor and reaching for the sky. Another of my biggest life challenges, however, is letting myself be in space.

So this 21.5.800 challenge upon which I’m embarking should be interesting. I think it may be all about SILENCE and SPACE. But I wouldn’t be too surprised if it also becomes about SONIC BOOMS and KALEIDOSCOPES OF COLOR.

Only time will tell…

Will you be coming on the journey as well?

Obviously, the “blog every day” thing and I don’t have a great track record. After all, only last month I attempted the NaBloPoMo with notably dismal results. I can pull out the excuses – I was sick, I was traveling, I was spending what little energy I had trying not to cry 24/7 – but the results remain black and white, for all to see.

So what makes me think this month will be any different, that Gwen’s challenge will be met with any greater results?

Not a damn thing. Except… desperate need.

I NEED to be writing, more now than perhaps at any other time in my life. It may just save me. Or at least distract me from the crying.

You see, this challenge is FOCUSED. There are SUGGESTED QUESTIONS on which to ruminate. And the point is to talk about what is BEST about the past year, not what is worst. Part of the reason I haven’t written much the past few months is because I’ve been overwhelmed with worsts and unable to see or believe in bests. This shouldn’t come as a shock to those who know me, but it has caught me strangely off-guard.

While I can’t change my life overnight, I can step up to this challenge, to the best of my ability.

Baby steps, I know. But with enough of those, I may yet go the distance.

by Lady Gooner/flickr

I’m not quite sure when the transformation happened, when I suddenly became the type of woman who would prefer to curl up on the couch in my flannel lounge pants and tank from Target, a bowl of Soy Praline Pecan ice cream and this past weekend’s TiVo’d episode of Mad Men rather than drag my laptop out of the heavy-as-shit bag in which I lugged it home from work in order to write a rambling blog post. But I must confess, the transformation is almost complete. Just a few more pieces of dead skin to pluck off and I will no longer be mistaken for anything but graceless couch potato. Sad, don’t you think?

It doesn’t help that I just found out I have to go to New Jersey this week. Let me repeat that. NEW JERSEY! No offense to anyone who has ever lived there but really, people, haven’t I been through enough hardship this year? Why couldn’t I be sent to New York? Or Hawai’i? Or, hell, Bora Bora isn’t that far away. There is just nothing particularly appealing about the Garden State when I’m having to give up dinner with friends, a potential rendezvous with an ex-lover and some unstructured time on – yes – my couch to be there. Even an invitation to dinner with Bruce would leave me only begrudgingly enthusiastic and, since there are no Evites in my in box, I’m guessing that’s not going to happen.

I am left to shake my fist at the universe and wonder once again why I wasn’t born with a healthy trust fund. Can you feel my pain?

Okay, so I received it while sitting on my couch in my sweatpants and trolling my favorite blogs, but I did do a little booty shaking in celebration. And here go the obligatory thanks — or in this case, the eligibility requirements for the kudos…

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to 5 most-deserving bloggers.
2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.
3. Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains the award.
4. Each blogger who wins the Superior Scribbler Award must visit the linked post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky list. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who wins this prestigious honor.
5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

I started this blog just two and a half months ago. I was am a complete neophyte in the blogosphere. Truth be told, I didn’t even read blogs before I started my own. I had never heard of Twitter. HTML was just one more acronym for something I didn’t understand. The internet intimidated me. In many ways, it still does. Once I entered this world, however, I quickly immediately fell in love with it. I entered it because I am a writer.

By Guy Ottewell

Yep. I am a writer. I even claim it on my tax forms. But I don’t always claim it in my real life. Why, you ask? Because. Because I’m not on the best-sellers list. Because no one optioned that feature that circulated last year. Because I haven’t been in a writers’ room since before the writers’ strike. Because I currently pay my bills with a “day job.” Because, right now, all I do is blog.

Each one of these arguments is a ridiculous reason to denigrate what I do, but it’s the last one that truly gives me pause. All I do is blog. Now, that’s a doozy.

By Ando Tokutaro

You see, if I devalue my role as a blogger, I am devaluing the role of every other blogger out there. That’s wrong. There are some great ones. While the level of integrity, and quality, of mainstream media seems to be in free fall, the trajectory of bloggers appears to be in the opposite direction. Change is uncomfortable, however, and many people outside the blogosphere would disagree with me. They don’t understand, value, or respect bloggers. I know. I was one of those people. Yet, I have seen the proverbial light.

Don’t worry. I’m not deluding myself into thinking that this blog will change the entire world. But it has changed mine. I rediscovered the pleasure of writing. Out in the “real world,” I spent so much time trying to play the game please my agent catch the latest trend sell my shit, I lost my voice. I forgot that I write… because. Because I love it. Because it keeps me sane. Because I have something to say.

By Johannes Vermeer

Every other blogger has something to say as well. You or I may not like all the voices we stumble across, but the blogosphere deserves as much respect and protection as any other written word arena. Two witty bloggers writers, califmom and Mr. Lady, present this case very well. They were inspired to do so by Don Mills Diva. So was I. She is actually doing something to ensure that bloggers have a seat at the grownups’ table.

Wanna join the crusade?

Let me explain…

By American Cacher

I am a writer and a rabid observer of human nature. Our foibles, and our attempts to disguise and deny those foibles – by lying – absolutely fascinate me. Lies are rampant in the 21^st century. They are evidence of a hopeless pursuit of perfection and power. Perhaps they are unavoidable. After all, have you ever met anyone who can claim they’ve never told a lie – without lying to make the claim?

Photo by Julius Lim

Watching Mr. Blagojevich compare himself to Gandhi, and attest to caring only for the little people of Illinois, has me shaking my head in wonder and cackling in glee – not because I believe one iota of what comes out of his mouth but rather because the design of his lies is utterly Baroque.

By MasksofVenice.co.uk

On the rare occasion I can force my eyes to lower from the behemoth mass of hair he carries around like a weapon, so I can closely examine his face, two things strike me:

1. I now know the struggle men have in shifting their eyes onto my face, though the effort is in the other direction.
2. Television is better than our public school system at teaching the important things.

Wed. 9pm on FOX

In particular, Lie To Me is a must-see for anyone who values a well-rounded education. For those who have thrown out their televisions in protest over the imminent switch to digital and thereby missed the ad campaign, Lie To Me is a new show on Fox, starring Tim Roth. The premise is, shockingly, that everyone lies and lucky folks like Tim Roth’s character, Dr. Lightman (Light Man – get it?), can tell when the lies are being told. I actually think the show is pretty clever, and Tim Roth is yummy in that slexy kind of way. But the priceless aspect of the show is the weekly lesson it gives in how to uncover a deception. Watch, and you will learn much.

A Dreamworks Film

However, will viewers implement the lessons learned? Do people really want to know when someone is lying? Really? Isn’t there a teensy part of you that secretly hopes the FBI’s got it wrong and Blagojevich is simply a misunderstood dude in need of a stylist? Or that your husband really is stuck at the office instead of stickin’ it somewhere else? Or that the pretty girl truly loves the idea of seeing The Uninvited on your first date?

Novel Cover Art

Heidi Julavits’ latest novel, The Uses of Enchantment, addresses the question of whether lies harm us or save us in an entirely charming manner. The young, female protagonist takes a single action, with far-reaching consequences. The story explores the emotional murk created both by deception and by truth, the damage caused by lying to others and the even greater damage caused by lying to ourselves, and the difficulty we all have in distinguishing whether or not someone’s pants are on fire.

By Huuh/ deviantart.com

Lies makes life interesting. Uncovering lies makes life dangerous. And learning to love someone despite his or her lies makes life worth living. What lie are you telling today?

Luddite laptop created by Big Time Attic

How did this happen? Ignorance, I tell you. I had no idea that my spontaneous decision mere weeks ago to documenting things that bring me pleasure would thrust me so deeply into the alternate universe of technology. I have spent the waning days of 2008 learning more about FeedBurner, favicons, and FTPs than I ever thought I’d need to know. Ever. The journey has tested me, perhaps made me stronger, and certainly made it easier to subscribe to my blog. And it is not over. As I reflect on what 2009 may bring, I know I have much to learn, and not just about web 2.0. I couldn’t be more excited!

Magic Pill

I’ve always been a magic pill kind of person. I just want to flip a switch or press a button and have what I want, EXACTLY what I want, appear in working fashion before me. Patience is a virtue I misplaced in the process of exiting the womb – except I was delivered by C-section, but you get the picture.

Recently, however, I’ve found myself noticing signposts leading away from the magic pill approach to life. I’m not saying that I plan on diving into any wombs to retrieve an errant virtue. Or anything else, for that matter. I am saying that my intention in the coming months is to rewrite my story, the one about who I am and what I can and cannot do in this amazing life. Perhaps I am not such a Luddite after all. And if that is the case, what else may or may not be true about myself?

So here’s to discarding expectations, and joyfully embracing the unknown in 2009. Let’s be pleasurably surprised by what we reveal of ourselves and what we let ourselves achieve. Happy New Year!