musingaloud | Writing Unbalanced

The other day at yoga I felt very unbalanced and almost fell over once. But when jiggling around trying to stay on your feet -- or hands, as the case may be -- the initial reaction is to tighten up and try to stay put, but what I've found to be more effective is to relax, to not fight the sway, but to give in to it, and that usually settles my balance. I think this relates to writing, because sometimes the words won't come, and I sit and tighten up and get more and more confused, when the thing to do is to just relax on into and write words, without worrying if the writing is smooth and unencumbered. Get the thoughts down without thinking too hard, let them flow out in disjointed phrases, in unconnected thoughts.

This worked pretty well for me the other day when I couldn't find the way into my story. I just wrote down whatever came to mind, even though I was repeating myself, or unable to finish a sentence. I just left it all as it was, and kept pushing on through. Last night I came back to the story and was able to edit and revise out all the repetition and stunted words. It's a good reminder to never not start just because the writing isn't flowing smoothly. Sometimes it's enough to wriggle around until the rough spots are past.