I would venture to say that everyone, at some point, whether it’s in writing or life, comes to the place when you can’t seem to move on.
You don’t know what to do, to say, to write.
Sometimes you’re just plain tired. Or overloaded and overwhelmed. Or you just wake up empty one day.
Sometimes it’s because life throws you for such a loop, it sits you down and stuns you into immobility. Takes every creative urge out of your body. Any desire to accomplish is gone.
So what do you do?
Give up?
Quit?
Granted, sometimes rest is called for. A respite from the pain, the overload, the noise in our soul.
But quitting cannot be an option if you want to finish what you’ve started. Life, project, novel.
Instead, you choose to put one foot in front of the other and take the first step. Write the first word. Make the first move.
I’ve stumbled onto one of those places. I sit and stare at the screen and wonder what to write. I find myself empty. Devoid of the desire to dig deeper for something inside me to share.
So I write about that nothingness. But at least I write. And the pump is primed. The first word, the first action, the first thought toward movement are the hardest. But progress, however small, is made. And it inspires me to write the next word and then the next.
And somehow, I think I will manage to write all the words that need to be written this week.
Whether it’s writing or life, the same principle can apply. Just take the first step.
Have you ever found yourself in the quicksand of emptiness? How have you moved on and broken free from its grasp?
