I have struggled with allowing people to see my creative side forever, so about a year or more ago, I started doing these little time-lapse videos of my Morning Pages sessions on my Instagram.
Tag: Writing
What Keeps You From Writing?
I have started no fewer than 6 blog posts in the last 7 days to reintroduce myself to longer writing after this daily poetry stint (it's not over, I just feel called to write differently) and I am struggling. Mightily, I might add. I can't put my finger on why it's so difficult, but I'm …
Everyday Poem #15a
I woke up at five am only to journal and walk and coffee and journal again (the second time with John Mayer) writing two things: one poem about broken promises that needs a rewrite for a happier ending (my heart and my readers agree) one ridiculously rough pre-first draft of a humorous epistolic-essay-love letter (it …
On Getting Lost in Creativity
All day long, I put off working on my writing project. I know I needed to sit and get down thoughts, but couldn’t find the energyBut only after putting on my pjs last night did I feel like sitting and writing. I’m glad I did—that’s the thing about creativity—you are always glad you did it …
What to Do When Words Don’t Come
Being in that place where it's time to put words down on the page but they refuse to show up can feel incredibly isolating, but it needn't be. Since the days of papyrus and charcoal (or whatever ancient writing implements were used!), feeling blocked in getting our ideas from the abstract to the concrete faces …
Time to Write: Getting Words to the Page
Now that we have all this space and paper, what on earth do we begin to write about? This may be the easy part for you--you may have been wanting to write for quite some time, but lacked the impetus. Stories of your grandkids, poems about your travels, a blog about breakfast cereals. Perhaps the …
Dear Reader 3.21.21
Dear Reader, From the first piece of writing ever published, the debate of what makes a writer 'a writer' has raged. Are you a writer because you write? Are you a writer only when you publish? Are you a writer only when you are paid for your work? Or are you only a writer if …
Space and Place: Where Do You Write?
As a followup to Friday's lesson on Finding Physical Space to write, I've been scouring the internet for more advice and insight on this topic. I believe that knowing if you're a multi-space or only-at-the-desk kind of writer matters as much as the words you put on paper. There is no right or wrong when …
Time to Write: Finding Physical Space
Recently, I have not felt settled. Whether this is due to the change of seasons, going back to my classroom (this time with students) on Monday, or the planetary alignment, I have struggled mightily to find my way through my daily routine in a way that gets my many daily tasks accomplished with any fidelity. …
On Comparison
Comparison kills creativity. Transmuting, or taking energy in one form (in this case, the negative energy of comparison), and changing it into a more meaningful energy, is a key to working through these thoughts that have the power to paralyze you into inertia. Instead of dropping into the negative spiral of energy you normally use …
Time to Write: Creating Mental Space
I recently began coursework to become a meditation teacher. Over the course of the last several years and especially during COVID, I finally managed to pin down a seated meditation practice that had become part of my every day. Sometimes I'd sit fifteen minutes; other times I managed to calm myself down into an hour …
Pens over Pixels: 5 Articles on the Value of Writing Longhand
As a followup to our first lesson on writing Friday, (Time to Write! Let's Get Tactile) , I've curated a collection of five articles that investigate the paper & pencil vs. keyboard and screen conundrum. Mostly for your reading pleasure, as I geek out on such debates--remember, the ultimate choice is yours and how it …
Continue reading Pens over Pixels: 5 Articles on the Value of Writing Longhand
Time to Write: Let’s Get Tactile
Most non-writers have an idea that those of us who love to spend our waking hours sculpting words into something coherent do so because we have special gifts, talents, or connections to higher powers or even that we’re somehow smarter than the average person. While I won’t blow the covers of my creative colleagues, the …
Pandemic Poem #38
In that space of knowing Something needs to be done But not knowing What it is What to do Where to go How to say it What to feel I lace my sneakers And press the soles into soil softened By an overnight rainstorm In that space of knowing I should be writing But not …
On Writing During a Crisis
Incredibly grateful to be featured on the Brevity blog today–let me know what you think!
By Beth Morrow
I made a new acquaintance recently who, in his days before three kids, a job in administration, and a divorce, had been an active and productive writer. He lauded me each evening for having sat down during this pandemic to flesh out the essays in my head with a Bic pen in my spiral notebook.
I couldn’t understand why he, as a person who’d felt the pull and power of writing himself, wasn’t doing the same. I thought that’s what writing was for: to internalize and digest the suppositional inanities of the external world into concrete and rational observations. To use our words to transmute the unease and anger and hatred and uncertainty into a story with tangible relevance. Writing has been the only way I have been able to convert the painful and potentially destructive events of my life into a series of stepping stones since…
View original post 543 more words
Words by Beth 