Bernadette Benda

*Sits down to write blog. Writes a blog. Hates that blog. Decides to write a new blog. Wants to write something but everything circles back to Covid and no one including herself wants to read any more about that. She needs someone to pull her away from ThredUp before she buys more sweaters*

Hullo.

“These are the days that try men’s souls,” or something to that effect. I hate Covid. I want to dance in Waltz of the Flowers. That’s all I got for you right now.

Just sitting here by mind feels a little buzzy and crazy and I am once again reminding myself that writing a blog after work is never, ever, a good idea.

I heard something the other day about a writer sharing their routine, and how they schedule in writing time etc etc. And one of the things they do is figure out what their top priorities are, and those get done first. But then she said something interesting, that she always proposes the questions, “is something bad going to happen if I don’t write that day?” (paraphrasing here)

No obviously yes, there are days when there are other things that have to get done. And a lot of times when we don’t have hard deadlines for writing (from an external source) it can seem like nothing bad will happen. Writing can wait .

And it can wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

Because a bad thing can happen if you don’t write that day. You might not write the next day, or the day after. And this isn’t to say that there won’t be days when you don’t write (you may even schedule them in. Like I a lot of times don’t write on the weekends). But if we don’t make writing a priority, who will? Will we ever get anything done?

I just know that for me, if I didn’t make writing a priority, other things would come up and take it’s place, and soon I might not be writing at all.

And especially when you’re an unpublished writer (like yours truly) it’s too easy to let writing fall to the wayside because it’s not a “priority”. It’s not making the money that’s paying your rent, it’s not feeding you, it’s not washing the dishes.

And too, the “bad thing that can happen” is not writing. Because I want to write every day. I need to write. Even if it’s only 20 minutes of journaling.

Do you know that quote (or is it a meme?) that goes something like, “I don’t like writing, I like having written.” Well, I like writing (except those days I want to hurl my laptop across the room and change careers to an astronaut because it seemed more feasible)

Oh my word I’ve been working on this for a whole stupid hour. Someone dump a bucket of energy on me (I know I’ve boasted about being able to write 2k words in an hour and I SWEAR I can just not….blog words).

And this also has descended into a heap of convoluted madness.

Alright. We’re calling this a day.