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#Reverb10 Day Two: Writing.

December 2nd, 2010 | 10 comments | Skydiving

This is day two of #Reverb10. The gig? Each day, there’s a prompt that everyone responds to. You can tweet it, blog it, tumblr it, paint it, graffiti it, twitpic it, whatever.

Sure, it’s already December 2, but you can join up whenever! Check out all of the rockin’ awesomesauce that is Reverb10.

Today’s prompt: Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing – and can you eliminate it? (Author: @leobabauta)

It’s taken me a bit longer than usual to wrap my head around this prompt today. What gets in my way? I only post once a week, if that, so I guess you could say that there is a whole hell of a lot that gets in my way. But… I’m not convinced.

As it turns out, there isn’t much in my day that doesn’t somehow contribute to my writing. I’ve said before, and though I’ve since stepped away from it, I kinda live for this blog. Interactions, conversations, experiences and new lessons learned are all thought-starters for posts. I don’t post frequently, but when I do it’s with feverish passion.

So, really, I think I’d be robbing myself if I eliminated anything that “gets in the way.” I could say I shouldn’t sleep in, that I should write instead, but sometimes my dreams fuel posts. I could say I should work less, that I should strive to have more “me-time” but time in the office, time in the sky, time at my apartment, time in the car – all of those are factors that drive me to write.

I could say that I should cut out Twitter, turn off email, stop Facebooking so much, but sharing content and participating in those conversations, both online and off, expose me to new philosophies on life, new writers, new content, new ways of thinking. I don’t think eliminating those aspects of my life would be a positive thing.

Is it more about what gets in your way or is it about how you approach it? You can make excuses or you can use those excuses to drive ideas, content and new ways of operating. Or, you can just throw in the towel.

Is it kind of a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty mentality? What gets in your way? What gets you super-jazzed, the kind of super-jazzed where you just can’t type (or write) down your ideas fast enough?

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  • http://ShireeninBetween.com Alicia Jabbar

    I love the way you talked about the desire for new content – it can be hard to come by when you participate too much online but it acts as such a point of inspiration and brainstorming that its too hard to stop. We might as well embrace it!

  • http://twitter.com/annmariastat annmariastat

    I agree that I don’t want to eliminate “what gets in my way”. Working out gets in my way. Reading books gets in my way A LOT, both technical books and books I read for fun. Should I just focus on being productive all the time? Did that when I was younger and while it’s, uh – productive – I wouldn’t want to go back.

    Hacking at code gets in my way – A LOT – but that’s what I do for a living, it pays my bills, helps me develop new skills and I love it.

    You can make excuses, you can use those excuses to drive ideas, you can just throw in the towel or you can say, you know, the way my time is all falling out works for me. We don’t all always have to do more.

  • http://twitter.com/ChelsTalksSmack Chelsea Talks Smack

    Pretty sure this is the common theme….I feel the same way!

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  • Doniree

    ~ I think I’d be robbing myself if I eliminated anything that “gets in the way.” ~

    BOO. YAH.

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  • http://detroit.fwix.com Jamie Favreau

    I am guilty of not updating my blog in over 200 days and NOT writing enough at RedWingsguy.com. So I don’t really have an excuse I just need to do it. Move on and stop being lazy. I have been guilty of doing that from time to time and it isn’t getting me where I want or need to be. I just get older and have more “What might have been’s” instead of “What should be’s.” I know this now it just means I need to take action. You always have great stuff!!!

  • http://coffeejitters.net/blog CoffeeJitters.Net (Judy Haley)

    it really seems to be about the ability to moderate the extent to which the contents of our lives interrupt or inform our writing