December 2 - Writing

What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)

Interesting question.  When I first read it I thought that I needed to replace writing with something else because I didn’t consider myself a writer.  But, in fact, a writer is exactly what I want to be.  I want to write a devotional.  I want to write an ebook for mothers returning to work after maternity leave.  I want to continue to blog personally and professionally.

So, back to the question…  Here are the things that I do each day that don’t contribute to my writing.  (Emphasis on do because it is asking just that, what I do.  It doesn’t ask what I don’t do, which honestly would be an easier question for me.)

I surf the web. I read.  I piddle in this and that.  At this time, writing is not my full time job.  I would love for one day for that to be the case, but until then, I have to fit in writing around my other responsibilities.  Fitting the writing in is the hard part.

The two things that would contribute to my writing are time and focus.  I need to devote time and space to writing each day.  Maybe it is carving out 30 minutes to write each day even if it doesn't have direction.  Maybe it is committing to writing only a certain number of words each day.  Maybe it is setting up a space where I can spend a bit of time doing nothing but writing each day.

Where will my writing take me in 2011, only time will tell, but I have no doubt that it will be places that, at this point in time, I can't even imagine.