What does it mean to write and how do you write?

For the longest it meant getting to my laptop and opening Word. For a certain time period it meant, getting to the physical page of a notebook, a good pen or pencil in hand to etch out the words in my mind. One of these have been my go to for years. Once I started filling notebooks with poetry, I asked for an electric typewriter for Christmas. Then a couple of years later I received my first computer: a Gateway All-in-One Desktop computer. Y’all remember Gateway? With the cow print cubed logo? Maybe I’m showing my age a bit too much here…

I’ve been reflecting on what it means to write this past year. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone of narrowly defining writing as something I do exclusively on my laptop or in my notebook. I can write in my Memo app on my phone or on my iPad. I can write lines and sentences on Post-Its or scraps of napkins or on the back of an envelope containing another credit card offer. Writing can even be creating an audio recording of a thought I will transcribe later. It doesn’t need to be formal, it does need to be perfect, it doesn’t even need to make sense. I don’t need to write for a set amount of time. It matters that the writing happens, that it exists outside of my mind. It matters that I make these thoughts real by bringing them into the world.

It sounds so simple. Just write. For years I’ve been telling myself that writing looks this way, and anything outside of that is not real writing. Of course this a lie, a myth that has stunt productivity for me in the past. But no more.

What is something that has held you back from writing?

See: Stuck at Start, A Quick Note Rejection, What Follows Rejection, A Quick Note on Hopeful Rejection, or Writing as an Offering