Today’s prompt from Reverb10:
Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)
Not much keeps me from writing. After all, last month I wrote 52,731 words outside of my full-time job as a professor–many of them appear in the two ebooks I’m working on right now.
That was, of course, an exceptional month. But I do find myself writing every day. I might author a blog post, comment on others’ blogs, work on those ebooks, discuss issues in a forum, write assignments for students, respond to student work, begin a poem, send e-mail, draft journal articles, and more.
I would love to be a more prolific writer as an academic, but my process requires a lot of reading and reflection, a lot of time in the archives. Still, I believe blogging helps keep my writing chops flexible and strong.
How and why
Those of you wanting to write more, but who are feeling blocked may wonder what inspires me to write. I’d say I’m less inspired than driven. My identity has long been tied up with writing, from well before I majored in English and then earned a Master’s in creative writing. Writing helps me to think clearly, and so without writing, I don’t get much thinking done.
I’m fortunate to have a job that values writing, research, and deep thinking. And I’m lucky, too, to be married to someone who understands—nay, who lives and breathes—the need to work on writing projects outside my job.
What about you? What keeps you from writing?
Photo by John O’Nolan, and used under a Creative Commons license