getting unblocked

To beat writer's block, you need to write.

I learned this from Julia Cameron and then Anne Lamott drove it home.

Write three pages, longhand. This is what Julia Cameron advises in The Artist's Way and I what I did for the 12 weeks that I followed her program.

Then I switched to doing my "morning pages," as she calls them, on the computer. Then I stopped altogether.

Then I became blocked.

On the computer it turns out, I was editing myself, which is fine when I am drafting an essay but not when I am trying to unlock my creative muse. The editing also took longer and made it feel more like a chore.

I am now getting started most days by hand writing those three pages. Often, by the time I'm done, I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to write that day.

I wish I didn't have to keep being reminded to do the things that are good for me.

I would save myself a lot of grief.