Just Write.

Lots of authors write about writing, which seems kind of weird. Then again, people write about dancing, about teaching, about anything and everything. So why not write about writing? I'm not going to take the academic approach on this subject; I believe that's far too boring for a blog post. I'm not even going to think about what I'm writing. I'm just going to write.

When I go to write, sometimes it is one heck of a struggle. I can't get into it, my writing is boring, nothing makes sense, and it's turning into an epic fail one sentence at a time. Delightful, right? It takes a while for me to get into the flow of writing. It's like going back to dance after a summer of laying on the beach reading books - it's rough to say the least! Who knows how long it will take me to get into writing today? For all I know this blog won't make sense until the last sentence, but hopefully not. With luck, I can start making sense right about now :)

I love free writing on Fridays, even though we've only done it once. Sure, I don't really write about interesting things except for the daily events of my life, but there is something intriguing about writing. You can't think too much or you're going to stop writing, breaking one of the rules of free write Fridays. There's something about letting your pen flow over the paper until your hand aches and the teacher calls time; it's refreshing, invigorating, exciting, and well...painful.

I've decided that too much thinking is bad for you. As a girl, I naturally over-think EVERYTHING. Should I have worn the other shirt? Did she try to ignore me, or didn't she hear me? Is he smiling at me just to smile, or does it mean something?  It's a bad habit, to say the least. As much as teachers may argue that thinking is good for you, too much thinking is bad. Too much of everything is bad; too much food makes you sick, too much love makes you wary and/or feeling suffocated, and too much sleep makes you tired. See my point? The same goes for writing. You can't think too much.

There comes a point when the pen and your mind become one. As a dancer, I know that thinking while dancing can be helpful, but it can also be detrimental to the performance. Teachers and judges alike can tell when you are thinking about the steps instead of enjoying the process. It's in the eyes of the dancer; when your eyes and face do not express the pure joy that should come from dancing, it's clear that your mind is still back at rehearsal, running through the steps at top speed as to not forget them. But there comes a time when the dancer, the movement, and the music fuse as one. The movements flow out of the dancer, in time with the music, and the dancer no longer needs to focus on engaging her abs during the triple en dehors or making sure her bottom foot stays turned out during the dèveloppé. It happens automatically and the dance truly becomes a dance.

It works the same way for writing. Eventually the writer, the words, and the pen become one. The words flow out of the pen and onto the paper without any work. Of course you need to think when you write, otherwise you will end up rambling (much like this!) and your work won't make sense. You should at least appear semi-coherent when you write. The best way I've found to write is to put it all down, then come back and look it over. That way, the ideas are all on the page and you can focus on revising and fixing semantics of. I believe the writing process works this way because you need to do one thing in order to successfully write - free your mind. Let it happen. Don't think. Let the writing come to you as it wants to; do not force the words out of your mind, into the pen, and onto the paper. Just write.