day one observations.

Day one of writing week has been....interesting.

And, oddly enough, very not-writingsome.

I had a lot of big plans to sort through a bunch of writing instructional PDFs and classes that I have sitting here that I've never really looked through, to watch a bunch of web-based classes that, again, I've had sitting here without every going though them, and to read some of the writing books that have piled up.  My thought was to do these things first today, just a little at a time, so I'm clearing out clutter/useful things during my frenzied periods of scribbling.

A funny thing happened, however.

I discovered something valuable.

My brain can either be in receptive mode (learning) or creative mode (doing).  The two are pretty much mutually exclusive.  And once I'm in learning mode, switching the giant red switch in my brain is kind of like climbing Mt. Everest.  It could happen, but not without a sherpa, and possibly, a miracle.

As much as I tried to flip that switch after J went to work, my brain was just not having any of it.  I went for a bike ride, I picked roughly a billion blackberries, I went grocery shopping, I tried sitting down and forcing myself to do it.

Nada.  Nope.  Big, fat resistance at every turn.

My muse is clearly screwing with my head, the clown.

On the plus side, this means I know what I can't do, moving forward.

I still think it's valuable, during writing weeks, to learn as much as I can.  (I'm also finding I know more than I think I do, since most of this info that I've been holding onto so tightly is stuff I'm finding I already know.)  From here on out, however, I'm going to alternate intake days and writing days.  If I can write on a learning day, I totally will, but I'm not going to beat myself up for not writing on these days.

After all, everyone creates differently.  Some people can write entire novels from a single prompt; some have to meticulously plot and plan on paper weeks ahead of time.  That kind of thing.

For me and my brain, well, we just need a separation of intent.  I can write like crazy and outline things off the cuff and produce fairly high word counts on writing days.  Those writing days just need to be different than the days I'm learning about writing.

All in all, a pretty important first day, even if it wasn't quite the way I expected it.