A funny thing happened to me last night; no funny is not the appropriate word to use, a surprising thing occurred. For the first time since I began writing seriously I was not able to write down my true emotions. I wrote outside of myself; I tried to clean it up and make it what I assumed other people would want to or need to hear. This has never happened to me; it was a reality check, what exactly was I trying to hide? I thought about it and the answer is nothing; I have never believed in hiding behind anything before so why should it start now? If I can’t express myself in my writing why am I doing it? Anyone else share this struggle, what did you do to work through it? Let’s make a promise to just own it.
Be Creative, Take a Risk, Let it Flow; the most important works I have read were not cloaked in the safety of the norm.
Literary.Land.of.Alysia 
The struggle goes on . Smile ! I hope you win the battle with why .
Writing is like a roller-coaster chasing your muse. The more you ride the gentler the ride. Sometimes you need to take a rest (voluntarily or not) and people call that writer block. just enjoy the peace of not being able to write, and I assure your next piece will be awesome!
Thanks for visiting my blog today. I enjoyed this post – especially as you talk of the experience of writing outside yourself – as last week I posted about that: the difference between writing that comes from within and without. Great to read about someone else’s handling of the situation.
I think everyone writes from experience. Writer’s see thing differently- or do we just sit and express what we see; whereas most people would not bother. Be proud that you cleaned it up- or tried to. I can’t hide. I write things down to vent. I cannot talk; therfore I write.
Love it when that happens. Revelations like this are like candy rewards for all our hard work and determination.
I love the candy metaphor you used there 🙂
Thanks for your honesty.We write for many reasons but I agree that sometimes we have to just own it.When we allow our true selves to breathe upon the canvas, beautiful things begin to happen.You become less judgmental of your self and others.Writing is a process of giving voice and expression but finding ourselves too.When I first started I was so nervous, I didn’t really know where I was going.I wanted to say the right things,I have since found out there are no right things.We write for others to find meaning they will take what they want and leave the rest.The people who don’t get you never will.Be daring, go for it in 2013!
I’m going through this right now! Trying to ‘reset’ myself back to ME, back to what i want to write about…. everything passes, with time 🙂
I wouldn’t question it, just flow with it if you can, it’ll lead you down a different path perhaps
I think this is a side effect of blogging, or social networking. We begin to project an image of ourselves to the world, and can never really share all our innermost thoughts. Anyone can and just might stumble across it. It really is the world! It is also easy to become concerned with how many likes or shares we get, and forget the purity of our writing when it was private. I like this post a lot as it is a very important thing to be aware of, and we do need to keep giving ourselves that reality check. Usually if people truly express themselves honestly, people love it even if they do not agree with it. People know the difference and appreciate honesty and genuine expression.
Yes.. this happens to me, and sometimes when I really want/need to write, it’s frustrating as ever! But there are always reasons, most of which I find later, why I’m stuck, unable to write effortlessly as always. It is not good to force, or push, yourself to write in moments like these.. like someone said above, relax, chill out, and put the pen down, or close your laptop! The writing will come when it’s time.. and it will be real, raw, fresh, and refreshing! ~ Jen 🙂
Don’t you love it when this happens? I look at it as a challenge…. When I can’t come up with what to write about, it’s like putting laundry in the dryer… Just pull something out and let it rip… You probably actually have so many thoughts inside your head that you are only having trouble narrowing it down to one single idea… Thanks for visiting my blog recently. Sorry to be late responding, my mother had a stroke on Friday so I’m meeting myself coming and going…:D
I’ve experienced this before but I found when you’re really having trouble with it just write something that is for yourself which no one will ever see. I have heaps of stuff that isn’t really written for anyone else to see but they contain my true emotions no matter how scary or confronting they are.
For me, I’ve discovered this means I don’t really know exactly what I’m feeling. So I wait for the moment when the feeling erupts into a place I can grasp. This often happens on a walk, a step back from myself, and in the infamous middle of the night. Ah, and sometimes in rare moments, if I’m alone, I write until I write myself into being aware.