I got nothing, nothing at all. Sometimes when I sit down to write my column not a single thought comes to my mind. I will sit and stare at a blank computer screen not knowing which key to punch first. I’ve been chipping away at my column, Under the Stetson, for going on three years now. I’ve penned close to 140 columns, and I must tell you, Friday rolls around pretty quickly.
I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to sit down and put words on paper that people might actually read. Some of my columns are well thought out and well written, others – not so much. Like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I’m just not feeling it. I search hard for topics to write about. I look for inspiration in music, conversations, movies, sermons, etc. Honestly, in anything or anyone I deal with, I am on the constant lookout for a topic to guide me in creating a meaningful column. One that will be worth spending the three minutes it takes to read it.
One thing I don’t want to do is to repeat myself or share a similar message but just in a different format. I have written columns which I have reread and then asked myself, “Have I not written this before?” So, I have found myself in a bit of a pickle of late. I do love to write; I’m just flat out of new things to write about and I’m not loving it. Writers block? Nah, I don’t think so, I’m just not putting my heart into the work.
What I am learning as I stumble through this little bit of a writing/creativity slump is that there are great ideas for my column all around me. I’m surrounded by people who have overcome all sorts of adversity and are living victorious lives. Everyone has a story worth telling, so it’s not that I lack inspiration in my life to write about, maybe it’s that I lack proper perspective.
I have never considered myself a writer, I think more of myself as a person that enjoys writing, but even still, to create anything one must be inspired. It could be cooking, building, painting, dancing, singing, acting, yodeling, – whatever. We are all inspired to create something in life. The key is giving it a shot and not allowing your God inspired gift to die with you.
One has to be willing to be bad at it for a while until things improve. I was reading some of my material that I had written decades ago, it is really bad. I’ve even written a couple of books, and when I go back now and I read them today I think to myself, ‘Oh my gosh that is so bad, I can’t believe I wrote that.’
I might be wrong, but I gotta believe Picasso’s first painting was probably a stick figure. But he was inspired to paint and something inside of him spurred him along and told him to keep creating. I ripped the skin off my knees learning to ride a bike when I was four. That’s part of learning to ride, but I stuck with it, and I was jumping over ditches and riding with “no hands” a few weeks later.
I began writing in high school in 1981. My high school English teacher, Roberta Young, opened a gift inside of me that I did not know I had. I cannot imagine where my life would be without my Creative Writing class in my senior year in high school. I wrote a great column about her a few years ago. I also dedicated an entire chapter to her in my book, Same Person Up or Down.
I’ve carved away at writing ever since, and the common thread through everything I have written about, and probably ever will write about, is the people who have come into my life and inspired me to do better. I love writing about what others have done for me. Maybe that’s the key to getting out of this slump that I am in. Remembering why I started writing to begin with.
- I was inspired to write.
- I had things and people I wanted to write about.
- I began to write my thoughts on paper.
- I wrote some really lousy stuff.
- I was encouraged by others.
- I stuck with it.
- I got better at it.
- I loved doing it.
Maybe I need to repeat that process all over again? Just start from scratch, from where I am today, and see if I can start loving it again.
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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].