I write all day. I’m lucky in that my day job is in corporate communications so I’m paid to write speeches; copy; briefings; articles and press releases. And yet when I finally turn off the PC for the day and get on with the usual chores of eating dinner (notice I didn’t say cooking ;-)) walking, playing and feeding the dogs and then trying to create some semblance of order in the house, the itch to write is constantly with me, pulling at my sleeve like an incessant toddler.
I’ve often pondered on this. I doubt decorators come home from a long day and get the urge to get the paint rollers out again and I’ve known many a teacher who bolts the door for fear of even seeing another child in the next twelve hours so what’s going on?
Expression
My only conclusion is that most writers are driven by a need for expression. The need for people to read what I’ve written is nowhere near as important to me as the need to commit my thoughts to paper or pixel. A purging almost of the mind and soul, it doesn’t need to be read in order to matter as far as I’m concerned – I just need to do it.
I may write all day but on the whole they’re not my words. I’m a ghost stepping into another’s shoes to write speeches; I’m a saleswoman pitching an idea in my copy; I’m a teacher marking the homework of the agencies whose work I edit with a bleeding pen through clenched teeth. I’m many people, except of course the most authentic one – Me.
Writer’s block
I sat down this afternoon desperate to write. Dogs walked; laundry done; ironing ignored for another day, I opened up WordPress and – nothing. Not a single idea for the Little Bear Dog blog.
My creative writing teacher once told us the only way to overcome writer’s block was to write. His was a generous take on the problem as he saw nothing wrong in including shopping lists in his suggested cure for the dreaded block. I’ve not veered that far from the path today, but it has helped – I hope regular readers will forgive the digression.
The Little Bear Dog Blog 