I have seen, I have read, I have heard about the incredible value of consistency.
The success it brings.
The hard-work ethic and its results.
It’s all true. And you know how I know?
I’ve been incredibly inconsistent at times (many times, in fact). And this has resulted in me remaining stagnant, as opposed to reaching what I want to most.
And what is that, you ask? Let me clarify.
Photo: skeeze via Pixabay
There is a point in the morning when the haze of sleep wears off and I am beyond groggy and realize that I had for some reason set my alarm the night before for 4:20 a.m.
When that time arrives, my mind has no idea what the hell is happening, who actually thought it was a good idea for me to get up at that time, and I inevitably head back under the covers for the false hope of sleep.
I’ve written about snoozing a lot lately, because it’s been a massive challenge for me to overcome as of late. It’s a consistent, never-ending battle, getting up at the ideal time (which for some reason is inching back earlier and earlier in the day — current “ideal” time is 4 a.m. on the hour).
Photo: AndreBeukes via Pixabay
A few weeks back I read a pretty interesting piece in Psychology Today that highlights the importance of handwriting in the digital age. That’s a lofty topic, and I won’t digest the essence of the piece beyond that point, but I feel it’s something all writers should read and think about.
Needless to say, we live in a world that inundates us at every angle with a screen. More than ever before we have the ability to do almost anything we want with most of the devices we have access to. This includes writing. It’s possible now to write on our phones and then sync that work with what we have on our computers. It’s hard to deny the efficiency of this process.
But it doesn’t mean that everything needs to be written on a device with a screen. There’s still value, I feel, in the analogue way of writing, longhand, in a notebook. And, as the Psychology Today piece notes, there is a direct stimulation to the brain when you actually write this way.
I tend to hold myself back thinking there’s one right way to do something, when that’s rarely ever the case. Such as it is with writing — be it scribbling longhand with a pen or tapping away at the keys.
But it’s important to understand that journaling with a pen is not the same as journaling on a laptop. Neither is better or worse than the other. But if a main piece of writing (such as a book or an article or a blog or anything of that nature) is done with a keyboard, I don’t believe putting ideas that flow into that work onto a page will at all slow the process down. It more likely will fuel it, and give it a different and powerful form of energy. Writing longhand is a conversation with your notebook. The mouthpiece is the pen (or pencil or chalk or crayon or whatever it is you find helpful).
And regardless of the approach, I do welcome and appreciate writing on a computer. I love it, and enjoy working on my laptop. I love typing away and have been fortunate enough to become a pretty competent typist over the years. It carries for me a sort of rhythm, not at all unlike playing an actual musical instrument. I write articles and blogs on my laptop, and most of the fiction I’ve written, and will write, has been done on the computer.
But alongside all of that, when I want to get messy (or when I want to pour my paint-splattered mind onto the page), I open the actual pages of my worklog (i.e., journal i.e. logbook i.e. notebook) and start writing away.
Lists. Sketches. Notes. Mind maps. Thoughts. Affirmations. Goals.
These days, I personally use a composition-style notebook (the bagasse ones from Staples, to be specific) for my main logbook and journal. I’ve implemented a Bullet Journal-style approach, which I’ve customized a bit, because I don’t really follow all the Bullet Journal “rules.”
I’m also experimenting with smaller notebooks (currently using a stack of Moleskine cashiers journals) for specific projects — at the moment, my manifesto. I’ll do the same thing with another small journal for my novel, which will be what I’m working on after the manifesto is done and into the world. I’m not talking about creating character bibles or anything like that (though these little notebooks will undoubtedly contain character-related details), this is more of a set of field notes that I hope will guide me through these specific works of writing. Indeed, if the book or project warrants it, I’ll pull together several small notebooks as needed for a project (which actually makes more sense, now that I write this out).
The mind is a myriad of patterns and there’s a lot of beautiful value in filling page after page with ink, as much as there is filling page after page with text on a screen. They both matter, and complement one another.
And although it’s easy to look at a paper notebook as a primitive “device” in this day and age, analogue itself is not a primitive means of writing. It is a natural form of it.
So, use the pen, I say. Scribble and scratch away. Then move to the computer and play us a song in the key of words.
One additional perk to the paper notebook: it has unlimited battery life.
Excuses.
The despicable little forces that convince us to put things off for another hour, day, week, month, year, then oh guess what? It’s too late. You’re old, decrepit, facing death, and those books you wanted to write, the ones that you knew were in you and that would come forth if you just let them, withered away like ash.
Excuses are what keep us from doing what’s uncomfortable. They keep us safe, in the comfort zone, whatever that might be. Mentally, figuratively, literally. Doesn’t matter. Their main role is to trick us into thinking we’re making the right choice, because they’re afraid of being ignored. Because when we don’t listen to the excuses? When we don’t agree with them and bring them to reality? Then they have no purpose. Then it’s they that fade and wither away like ash.
Ah, fear. It’s a concept most of us hate to face, let alone talk about. There are many who talk about overcoming fear, about how to become fearless. But in my perspective, fear is a relative force. It’s not necessarily ideal to live without it, and I don’t even know if such a thing is possible.
There is, however, a way to live without letting Fear remain in the driver’s seat. Instead of sitting behind the wheel, Fear can sit in the back (or even in the way back, if you’re driving a ’92 Ford station wagon). Anyway, my point is, fear can actually be a guide of sorts, a teacher, and — gulp, dare I say it — a friend. A teacher even?
But what if we actually spoke to our own inner source of fear? Turned around, looked at it head-on, asked it some questions — what would this be like? Well, I decided to give that a try.
In recent weeks I’ve written a lot about habits, mindsets, forging the creative path, books that have helped me better understand myself, etc., and in that time I’ve noted a few creative individuals along the way that I’ve found to be influential.
Granted, there are countless individuals I could point to from throughout my life (authors, musicians, artists, athletes, etc.) who have inspired me. Today, though, I want to take a deeper dive into those I look to most frequently these days for my own inspiration. These are the individuals I follow on social media, and whose blogs or platforms I read, follow, and subscribe to on a regular basis. They continue to give me that nudge I need to keep moving forward with this blog and my own creative efforts.
There are a lot of things I have planned on the way, and a lot of these awesome folks have provided me the inspiration to dig deep and get moving. Hopefully they can provide value and inspiration for you, too.
Enjoy.
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