Writing With Joy

Bella the boxer. At a year and half old, she is spunky, and cuter than words can describe. Believe me, I’ve tried! Bella has a terrible underbite, and she has to adjust her head when she eats, so the food doesn't fall out of her mouth. When she thinks she's in trouble, she wags her little tail as hard as she can, which in turn wags her whole body. Then she makes little squeaky noises, and because we find it so irresistible, we forget we’re mad.

Bella loves her brothers and sister. She loves people--even the vet. She is happy, carefree, and simply enjoys being herself. When I watch her outside in the yard playing with the other dogs, snuggling up in the same bed as Zeb, or looking out the window at what she's missing in the world, I can't help but think of how much joy she brings us.

For writers, joy can be hard to find. We put all sorts of constraints on ourselves, which makes it hard to be happy and carefree. I decided to try writing the way Bella plays—with recklessness and freedom.

Nothing happened.

For some reason, I couldn’t write. I had all kinds of thoughts, but my mind stopped me from putting any of it down. I could hear my inner critic telling me, “It isn’t good enough”, “You really wouldn’t say that”, “No one will like that”, “It’s garbage.”

The mind is so powerful, yet so limiting. I tried again the next day, and took a chance on the words in my head. I reached for the Backspace key several times, but decided to let the words flow. After a few minutes, I relaxed and got some good writing in for the day.

It’s hard not to edit as I write, but I’m training myself to get out whatever is on my mind, and delete later. This method brings more days of joy because I can be myself and say what I want.

 

Bella taught me that my writing doesn’t have to be neat and pretty on the first pass. It just has to be real.