Some days everything seems a mess. You awaken at 4 a.m. and can’t go back to sleep. Excited to write in the peace, but your mind can’t settle on the main writing project. It can’t settle anywhere. You write anyway.
You discover that some writing on the novel that you know you saved a month ago is now lost in a computer, not the new one, the old one. Or maybe you didn’t save it. You know you wrote it, but it isn’t there. You want to throw up your hands and leave the computer. You keep writing anyway.
The furnace broke on the weekend, is still broken. You are called from your desk to hold the flashlight for Bigstreetrod to measure the part he says is needed to fix the furnace–the one that costs $200, and whether it fixes it or not is a guess. You feed the cat, get more tea, and go back to writing on the novel, even though you’re not sure where in the world you are on it.
Your eighty-four year old mother is walking around, when she walks at all, in sweat pants, tunic sweat shirt, a down-filled vest (I think she slept in it beneath three comforters), socks and fuzzy slippers, because it is sixty-seven in the house. The electric radiator can warm only her bathroom, she refuses to sit in the family room where the fireplace burns brightly. You think of this as you keep on writing anyway.
It is now time to cook breakfast and have made so little headway because your mind refuses to focus. Your instinct is to just grab toast and deli meat, but then your cold mother doesn’t have a proper breakfast. You keep writing.
A memory comes. A clerk at Wal-mart commented, “Some days you come into the checkout station and everything is in order and all works. Other days you come in, and it’s a real struggle.” She still has to check out customers.
Life is like that. It is messy and disjointed, and you write anyway, because you are determined to write something, anything, that is of a whole piece. Because if you waited for things to settle down, for having nothing to do but write, no interruptions or worries or a settled mind, you would never write
You write anyway.
Now that I’ve convinced myself, it’s back to the novel.
Curtiss Ann Matlock 
16 responses to “Write Anyway”
Checking back in again and I see I’ve kept my promises above!
I’ve kept on writing…….
I’ve bought one of your books and it’s on its way to me now!
Wishing you blessings in your novel and in your garden.
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And now you inspire me to get to work…keep on keeping on! Hope you enjoy the book, and especially your vacation. CA
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That’s right. We write anyway! My playful muse has just dealt me a new hand at the doctor’s office today. If she isn’t getting me out of bed at night (someone once said, and it was a famous writer, “anything you had to get up out of bed to write, you will not have to edit. It’s ready to go.”) to write down her latest fantasy, or keeping me awake thinking about it, then I slack off to a bit of sleep only to be awakened with an inordinate urgency to get up and pee, not just once but up to 7-8 between midnight and 8 am. So I’ve given myself “leeway” to sleep in when I have numerous trips during the night, cutting out the early am writing. Today, doc gave me new drug (actually drug study). I have to take it one hr. BEFORE breakfast. Ahah! Now, I have to get up and I have one hr to do some yoga stretching and writing, in the early part of the day. Gonna start tomorrow. And I just write anyway.
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Oh, honey, very, very few things will get me out of bed, writing included. I worried about this in the early days. I heard so many people speak of jumping out of sleep with a great thought, going to the keyboard, or at the very least making a note. Not me. Never. Then I realized that there are as many different ways to do something as there are stars. I will write anyway. 🙂
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Amen.
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Susan– I stopped by your site, but Blogger wouldn’t take my comment. I often feel they hate WordPress, but I so wanted you to know I enjoyed my visit. I spent many a day on the Llano during my years in OK. We actually lived on the edge. Now I’m in Alabama where I can actually ride a bike. I bought one. Your site encourages me to ride it.
CA
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Thanks Curtis Ann, your famous writer notes to me mean a lot to this unfamous writer — Thanks so much. I had not seen this. After getting moved to our next location by Feb. 14, I am gonna: 1) Keep writing 2) Buy one of your books and bring it into my new home for my pleasure. Most my beloved books are boxed now ready for the transport across the road.
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I see now your note was to another Susan. That’s ok. I got a lift too.
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No– it is to you! We retired and moved here to Alabama almost two years ago. This coincided with me finishing my last book, and feeling I might never write again. A changing period in my life. I have trusted God and He is leading me back to writing in a brand new fresh way. A true and honest way.
I wish you traveling blessings. Moving is not for sissies. 🙂 Nor is becoming more thrifty. But we can do whatever we have to do, thanks be to God. blessings, CurtissAnn
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Thanks for sharing. I needed to hear this today!
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Amen Sistah!! We keep on writing because what we do matters. Love you.~~Dee
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You say it succinctly, dear friend–we keep on writing because what we do matters. It has taken me a long time to understand that truth.
Now I am sitting with afternoon tea. This precious quiet time matters, too. Xxxooo CA
Sent from my iPhone; please excuse typos.
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Good morning, this sounds like my morning although nothing is really wrong, just nothing seems right….like I am waiting for the furnace to give out or an impending ice storm or having to pump gas in frigid temps. Come on spring and in the meantime, I sew anyway.
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You sew, Judy! I wonder if many of us are having such mornings.
CA
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How true, Curtiss Ann,
Hang in there.
Donna
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Thanks, Donna. Same back to you. I am once again applying myself to the novel, armed with a fresh cup of tea, and your encouragement.
CA
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