Writing as a Discipline vs. Writing When You Have Something to Share

Let me preface this by saying that writing has been one of my favorite activities for a very long time.

In fact, I can go all the way back to grade school where I remember the adults remarking on the fact that I seemed more interested in writing things down than in drawing pictures.

Although I never formally pursued writing as a career, it has been interwoven in my life ever since those days… which might tell you something, since in about a month I'm going to turn 62!

Now, lots of so called "experts" on creativity and writing will tell you that you have to treat writing as a discipline; like training yourself in anything, you have to sit down and write every day. Regardless of whether or not you "feel like it."

That approach may be why I have never managed to become a "professional" writer, at least if we're going to use it as the core foundation for what it takes to be a writer. But here's the thing: I am far better off as a writer when I just write when I feel like it and when I actually have something to say/share as opposed to turning writing into a daily chore.

Lacking Discipline?

Now I'll be the first to admit that I did try to write professionally at one point, back when I spent a few years being a technical writer in the IT industry.

Ultimately I had to stop — even though I was quite well compensated — because it soon felt like total drudgery perhaps because it wasn't very creative. I wrote user manuals for software and online help systems.

And maybe that's where we have to make the distinction: if what you're interested in and what motivates you involves primarily creative types of writing then I imagine inspiration is far more important than if you're a satisfied with plugging ahead with your basic “write to order” style that might for example be part of technical writing, or journalism or something like that.

My years of blogging, including the past 5 1/2 years I've been part of the Steemit community, have really taught me that unless I actually have something to say/share I'm better off just staying quiet.

Hence, if you look back across my 1600 plus posts written here you'll see that sometimes I might post twice or even three times in a day and then again I might post only once every five days, for a while.

This kind of "running hot, running cold" dichotomy has been part of many aspects of my life, for almost as long as I can remember. Part of that is due to the ongoing challenge of being first a child with ADHD, and subsequently an adult with ADHD.

Of course, blogging is a writing style of its own.

Since it originally grew out of a form of journaling, it's essentially intended to be a reflection of the events of our lives or opinions/ideas we happen to be thinking about it at any given moment. And I don't think I need to tell anybody that life doesn't come to us in an even steady stream, it comes to us in fits and starts!

As such, I doubt I'll ever reach a point of treating my writing as a discipline. Even when I am doing editing jobs for other people, and there are deadlines... I still will work a lot on one day, and very little the next.

We just each have to find our "flow," because our best expression happens when we're "in the flow!"

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Are you very structured in your approach to creativity? Or do you just let it flow when the mood/ideas strike you? Is your approach working well for you, in terms of creating your best? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20220629 23:15 PDT
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