Writing in the Moment

The secret of it all is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment - to put things down without deliberation - without worrying about their style - without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote - wrote, wrote... By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.

-Walt Whitman

Do you ever sit down to write and just feel...stuck? You have the words in your mind, you know what it is you are picturing, you just can't find the perfect way to say it. This happens to me all. the. time. Seriously. 

My problem is that I'm trying too hard. The Muse is awake and she's feeding me - the ideas are coming quickly. But I stop. Instead of continuing to pour out the images that are in my mind, I stop to think - are these words expressing my thought well enough? 


Something I've learned to do is when the words are flowing, just write. It will not be perfect - it will be a great, big jumble of crap most of the time. But save your editing for later. Just get those thoughts out onto your paper (or screen). As Whitman said, don't deliberate about style. 


Style is for later drafts. Words are for first drafts. 


If you can get words onto paper, you've done something right. You've written - and that's an accomplishment. 

So next time you go to write, let the first words that come to your mind go onto your paper. Try this method, Whitman's method, and we will both see the truth - if you write without deliberation, you will write, write, write. 

~Irene

(FYI, this is why I don't write poetry - I have to sit there to find a word that rhymes, and by the time I do the Muse has gotten frustrated with me and left in a huff. xD)