To Write or not To Write?

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I'm staring at the computer screen wondering if I should *try* to make myself write or just wait and see if inspiration hits and I have something to say.

Part of me says, "Don't force it; if it's supposed to come, it will."

Another part says, "You learn by doing. You write by writing. The discipline of reaching for something that you don't know is there and pulling it out is really what makes a writer."

I've been living by that first dictum for a long time and I have only a little writing to show for it. I don't think I've really even scratched the surface of what I need to write yet.

So maybe it's time to change paradigms and put a demand on that writing anointing and write *something*, even if it's lame?

My grandmother had a mirror with little dolphins on it hanging on the wall opposite the medicine cabinet mirror in her bathroom. I used to like to stand "just so" between the mirrors and see the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the reflection. Each reflection was nested in the previous one, and I could never see where they stopped. Blogging about blogging seems kind of like that to me; also like that 'circular reference' thing that Excel complains about when I click wrong whilst doing the family budget worksheet.

But the truth is, I'm really *not* just trying to fill up space...I'm trying to feel my way along into something new and unexplored.

But I kinda suspicion that the reason I'm doing this is because I'm wanting to reach for that thing that I don't even know is there and pull it out.

And I'll be as surprised as anyone else when I manage that.