Think Less, Write More
It is the tenth day of my one hundred day writing challenge, and I am beginning to notice something: the less I think, the easier I write.
It goes in complete and total opposition to what I have been taught — what we all have been taught, truthfully. From the beginnings of our lives as we spend years in a school system designed to develop our minds with little regard to our hearts, the skill of writing well has tended to be one governed by the rules of logic, structure, and process.
And yes, perhaps there is thinking that must be done as a prelude to writing, but then there is this too, this very important thing: the art of allowing the words to flow and to come as they please.
There is no logic to flow, no structure or set process or number of steps to follow — there is just you and the way in which you allow the flow to move through you.
The more you are able to lay aside the critical mind, the more the flow will come.
As such, the less I think about what I want to write and the more I open myself up to what is in the moment, going about my day with open eyes and open heart, the more the words are inspired to come.
And so it is — the less I think, the easier I write.
And as it is in one thing, so it is in all things.
Author’s Note#100daysofwriting | This essay is the tenth in a series of 100 I am challenging myself to write before the end of the year 2022. As of today, 102 days remain. Will the essays be perfect? No. Will they be done? Yes. As a life-long recovering perfectionist who loves to write but fears subpar work, to write with such frequency and disregard for most standards except the one that asks, is it published? will be an adventure, to say the least.
Topics, I’m sure, will span the breadth of seriousness to silliness, will cover the grounds of spirituality to observations I may make in a nail salon, but truthfully, there are no promises in such a challenge, except to say that yes — they will be done.
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