Future Bard

Writing is a mysterious, idiosyncratic practice. Our biggest challenge, especially as beginners, is to silence our inner critic and what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance.

(Resistance is the inner killjoy that pounds your resolve into shreds. We're all put on this planet to pursue some dream, or calling, and 90% of us resist it. Instead, we resist these longings - to become a novelist, to open our own business - and opt for safety and comfort.

A confession: I subscribe to this because I cannot believe in a God that calls so many people to be lawyers.)

Every writer must overcome Resistance and our pinche inner critic in their own way. Finally, after a year of floundering in grad school, I think I've found mine. My nefarious tag team needs more sleep than I do. If I wake up after a decent night of sleep, I have a 15-20 minute window where I can think and create unencumbered. The same applies to that window of time that I lie in bed, in the dark, before I fall asleep. (The idea germinated from a Seinfeld episode I watched last night.)

I noticed this today when I woke up and, while I was still wiping away my eye boogers, I was hit with BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Simultaneously, I had the realization I've already described above, the plot to my screenplay congealed, and I discovered a solution to the impasse that exists with my first novel.

The problem? Like three hungry baby birds, they were all vying for my unfettered attention. My mind loops and wanders, so I was barely able to transcribe a third of what I sensed before Dumb and Dumber crashed the party.

I'll have to try a tape recorder instead.