We are so hard on ourselves. Perfectionism. Judgement. Bullying. If you have a wiggling interest in being more creative, these are the familiars, the words with which we do battle. We defeat ourselves even before the first bell rings. “It’s not good enough.” “Who do you think you are?” “They will laugh at you.” Some repressed artist, stressed mommy, or your big brother, planted those litanies in you and it is time to yank them up. 

Ideas long ignored will disappear. Remember that day you envisioned that plot twist, or novel, or had a great line for a poem? Is it still there? Probably not. Think of it as a friend who regularly asks you to lunch, while you keep refusing. They will, of course, eventually stop. Elizabeth Gilbert has written an interesting book about this phenomenon. Big Magic recounts the serendipity, and elusiveness of the creative life. It is a good read. What I know is that we cannot develop our voice if we remain quiet. Listening to those impulses to write things down becomes the hand you hold as your voice becomes clearer. Fortunately for me, my muse was raised in enough disfunction to tolerate and perhaps even crave rejection, so when I finally came to a time when I could invite the her in, she was still hanging around like a demented stalker girlfriend. My job is to stop being the abusive ex. How about you? Can you see that shadow figure that keeps circling your block? Can you hear something knocking on your door?

What if you wrote one line today? One little line. And if you feel like, just one line tomorrow. I like to use the format of getting it into 10 syllables. I call them TENS. The book I am working on right now has a fair amount of TENS. Most of the “writing” of it took place when I was doing a cross country driving road trip, just me and my dog Ivy. Coast to coast as the world flew by, I would try to grab a single line that would capture where I was, how I felt, what I saw, what moved me or changed me or scared me. By the end of my two-month journey there was a good pile of images and things to play with. Stay tuned for that book. It is called Jupiter Rising. 

Here’s the invitation…. Write one line and send it to me in the Comments section. Try not to get bogged down in it being perfect. Any line will work. This is about oiling the hinges of a heavy, rarely opened door. If you get it open by writing one line, you WIN! I will post as many as I can, and I can leave your name on or off as you choose.   And while you are here, check out the new posting on my podcast.  Just scroll up to LIVE READINGS.