Class Begins

I write early in the morning, before the day begins for most people. I have spent the last two weeks establishing a writing routine, so that when the Write Now class with Amanda Mays began this habit would already be partially formed.

I have been setting my alarm for 5 a.m. each day. The first week I bounded out of bed as soon as the alarm went off, excited to get writing. The second week it took a full five minutes for the desire to write and the sleepy body to come to an agreement that it would be good to get out of bed.

Despite that five minute delay I have been getting up and writing every day at a set time. I am not trying to squeeze in 15 minutes of writing somewhere between walking the dogs, grocery shopping and laundry.

Now that I have made writing a priority, the first thing I do instead of the last, I have to say the whole day is filled with joy because I am making time to do something that I love.

Monday morning the first lesson came for class; acknowledge your fears and write them down. What? I don't have any fears, I just want to establish a daily writing routine with some nice little writing prompts for each day. I don't want to write about my fears.

Then the voice of reason spoke up. "You are taking this class so you can become a better writer, establish a daily writing routine and face your fears about writing. You must have fears or you would have been doing all this much sooner. "

Well ok, there may be one or two fears that should be addressed.

I think my biggest fear is that I don't know where to go with my writing. I am someone who likes to have a purpose for whatever I am doing or else it seems like wasted time. I know that if I didn't have my blog to write and photograph for, and then share with my readers there would be no motivation for me to write or to photograph. I am not a keep a journal for my personal thoughts kind of person. Yet shouldn't I be striving for something more than just writing a blog? If you write isn't your end goal to write a book and make some money?

What if I don't want to write a book, at least not a novel. Now a book of short stories might be a possibility. I don't want to lose artistic control and be told what I should do. That is what I love about my blog, I can write whatever I want with complete freedom. Then I thought, I am taking this class and I am being told what to write about and I am doing it, so maybe this is shaping me for the future.

My other fear would be, what if my writing voice disappears. It has happened before when life has gotten busy and there was little time to think let alone write. This is where establishing my 5 a.m. writing routine will be essential. There are no interferences this early in the morning. The test will be when we are traveling. This is usually when I lose my writing voice. I am pretty sure though that my husband will not appreciate the hotel desk lamp shining brightly at 5 a.m.. This can be remedied if I have all my writing stuff together and go down to the lobby or breakfast room, I can easily get an hour of writing in before the rest of the world wakes up.

I am enjoying this daily writing practice much too much to let anything get in my way at this point. Over the next four weeks the daily writing will get firmly cemented into place and who knows what will happen from there.

I must put my fears aside, trust the process and enjoy seeing where this journey takes me.