Creative Avoidance is Not Your Fault

Why Creative Avoidance Is Not Your Fault

I want to talk about the moment when you finally have time to write—and somehow decide that now is the perfect time to clean out a drawer. You have been thinking about your story all week. You want to work on it. But when you sit down, everything else feels more urgent. Then comes the guilt. You had time. You wasted it. You start wondering whether you actually want this badly enough. Before you turn another unfinished writing session into evidence against yourself, I want you to pause.

You can love writing and still have a hard time getting to the page. 

Writing asks a lot of us. We have to make choices without knowing whether they will work. We have to tolerate the awkward distance between the beautiful thing we imagined and the messy thing we can make today. Sometimes we are putting something deeply personal into words, even when we give it to a fictional character. That can feel vulnerable. Especially when we are also carrying the pressure to make something good, finish something, sell something, or prove that our time spent creating has been worthwhile.

Avoidance is a common human response to something that feels difficult, uncertain, or uncomfortable. Creating something can feel especially difficult because the outcome is unclear. You know what will happen if you send an email or do the dishes. It's a task you can finish, and that feels good! With writing, we don't know what will happen. Will my story be terrible? Will it make me look stupid? Exposed? Will everyone know I'm not a real writer? Will I solve the structure? What is structure anyway? I'll never figure it out.

Our imaginations are good at inventing possibilities. Sometimes we get caught inventing the worst ones. When a task brings up uncomfortable feelings, avoiding it can give us immediate relief. So when you find yourself checking your phone instead of writing, try getting curious about the moment just before you reached for it. Maybe you were tired. Maybe you didn't know what happened next. Maybe you wrote a sentence and immediately decided it was terrible. Each of those gives you something specific to respond to. You can rest, try a different scene, or give that sentence a chance to exist before you judge it.

What would make your writing fun?

Please do take that question seriously. What makes you really light up with joy? And how can you find that feeling in your own writing? Think about how quickly an idea can disappear when you criticize it halfway through arriving. You haven't even found out where it goes yet. Give it a few minutes. Let the character say the strange thing. Follow the image that makes you curious. Write the conversation you have been looking forward to, even if it belongs fifty pages later.

And let yourself play. When I talk about getting back to your inner child, I mean giving yourself permission to approach the page with curiosity and make-believe. Remember the possibilities of a cardboard box, a made-up game, or a stuffed animal with an unnecessarily complicated life. A rabbit could be a detective. The detective could own a bakery. The bakery could be haunted. You keep going because you want to find out what happens. We can bring some of that freedom to play and have fun into our writing now.

Draw your character's bedroom. Give your villain a terrible first date. Write a scene in which two people desperately want the same last piece of cake. Put on music and imagine what your character would do if nobody were watching. You might find a detail you love. You might discover a voice, a conflict, or a scene you would never have reached by staring at the document and demanding a good idea. Follow the strange image in your head, even if you judge it as “bad” before it’s gotten a chance to come to life. 

Having fun helps stories get on the page because it gives us a way to begin.

Try it today. Spend two minutes drawing a place you would like to explore: a treehouse hotel, a haunted grocery store, an apartment with a secret door. Use stick figures. Add whatever interests you. (If drawing isn't your thing, you can describe your ideas as a list or in story form.) Then put someone there and give them a small problem. They have lost something. They are hiding something. Someone has arrived whom they were hoping never to see again.

Write for ten minutes. Leave the sentences alone while you find out what happens. Afterward, circle one moment you want to keep. That is something you can build on. And you got there by giving your imagination something to do.

At Typewriter Party, I want there to be room for you: Experiment! Laugh! Make a mess! Find your way into a story through something that interests you. Remember that writing is storytelling. We get so caught up in the “right” way to write. Take all the rules away and tell a story! You deserve a relationship with your creativity that includes pleasure. Get comfortable in a chair where you can sit crisscross applesauce, put on fuzzy slippers just for writing, or eat chocolates when you sit down (that's what I do). Give yourself treats before and after you write. You may feel exposed, vulnerable, scared, or just plain exhausted with possibility. Give yourself permission to begin with a few minutes of play. Making writing feel more welcoming can take practice. For today, remember that you're allowed to just mess around on the page. What you make does not have to be finished or perfect.

Remember it’s totally normal to avoid writing. Our mind wants us to take the path of least resistance, because life is hard enough. Your brain is trying to protect you from difficulty. It’s our job as writers to recognize that we’re safe when we sit down to write. Creating art forces our brain to create new neural pathways, and that’s so good for our brains and our storytelling! Today, start with a scene you look forward to. Imagine one small, satisfying outcome: a conversation you enjoy writing, a strange image you want to follow, or a moment that surprises you. Put your character in trouble. Let yourself laugh. Write down what happens.

And if you’d like support as you put words on the page, join Back to The Page. You can come and go each month as needed. Typewriter Party is a very small community of beautiful writers getting together to make great things and have fun doing it. https://www.typewriterparty.com/backtothepage