Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Chapter Two – Enemies of Creativity
“Sticking to a schedule goes beyond will. There are enemies to that habit, dark forces that keep us from writing creatively.”
Jack Heffron, Page 2
The Procrastinator (I’ll write tomorrow)
The Victim (I don’t have time to write)
The Talker (I’m going to write this and this and this and this…)
The Critic (My writing sucks)
The Judge (I shouldn’t be writing when there’s laundry that needs to be done)
The Author (The only point of writing is to get published)
The Capricious Guest (I’m waiting for Inspiration to find me)
All of these enemies visit each of us, and some have a valid point. But the main issue is, we shouldn’t let any of them stop us from writing if it’s what we really want to do.
Writing Prompt:
Write about your need for a creative life or simply, your need to write. Why do you do it? What needs are fulfilled through it? Call your essay “Why I Write.” For examples, you can find an anthology of such essays – titled Why I Write, edited by Will Blythe – in which big name authors explore their needs to write. In your essay be honest and be thorough. Try to achieve a better understanding of your impulse to write. Use this understanding to explain to The Judge and to all the enemies, why you must write, despite blocks or guilt or a hundred really cool other things to do.
Why I Write
By Kendra Leigh Bott
I write because I love stories. Books, movies, plays, music, biographies, fiction. I love learning, and I learn the best through stories. I write because I love teaching. I want to pass on what I’ve learned to others. I write because when I’m writing and words flow and the word disappears, I know this is how God made me. He made me a writer, a lover of words.
I write because it’s a creative outlet for me. Being creative is another way God made all of us. He made us in His image, He’s a creator, we are creators too. We can create stories, paintings, a new organization system, relationships. I’ve never been good at speaking, but writing is where my words come, where my voice is at it’s best. I write to communicate.
When I started writing The Footsteps of the Five, I mainly did it because I wanted to learn, to understand. I had questions that could not be answered… so I made them up, I wrote them. In doing so, I not only started to understand the answers to my questions, but I started to understand the women I was writing about. I started to understand the culture and the history more. I want this book out there to be read because maybe the readers will start to understand things like I did.
I have all the excuses why not to write. At the moment, my back is hurting and it’s making it difficult to sit in this library cubby with my computer. If I was home now, I’d be catching up on the mountains of laundry waiting for me, or I could be spending time with my kids. The Writer’s Guilt and the Mom Guilt I feel are constantly at battle with each other. The Critic visits me a lot, especially when the rejections come. I begin to question if writing is indeed the right path for me. The Author tells me that I need to make money. If I’m not writing for money, then I need to be doing something else. And my favorite, the Procrastinator, he hates my schedule. It’s probably his fault that Parent/Teacher night is on my writing night this week. But Ha! I’m writing anyway. Not for as long, and I’m working later than usual, but I will not let the Procrastinator win this round.
I feel confident (most of the time) that writing is my calling. I like writing. It’s hard, but I feel good when I do it. I write because I want to.