Have you ever looked at a physical task and thought you should be able to perform it only to find out that you can't? Your first thought may be, "I used to do that all the time," and then you remember that you haven't been exercising like that for a while. Writing can suffer from the same problem.
My day job has been extra hectic this semester. Almost all of our classes are full of eager students, but my program is short one instructor. That leaves two of us to teach nearly 140 students. Not only does that fill the day with lectures, but there is a massive quantity of grading to do. This has left me with very little time for personal writing.
Today, I completed grading early and realized I hadn't planned for any non-grading activities. Recovering from the shock, I realized I could write. There was finally time for it.
Only, I couldn't, not very well, at least. My brain has gotten out of the habit. It was as though my brain had packed all my writing clothes and put them away until next season. It took a lot of relaxing to get into the writing mood. Even then, it was not great work.
I remembered something I wrote in the early two-thousands called Dream Car. The short piece described a car driving through a dreamscape in which all the aspects had something to with the subconscious mind. More importantly, every word was carefully chosen to represent a concrete object in the image and yet an ephemeral part of the thinking. For example, "Some things blurred by on the street, barely passing thoughts. Others crept slowly, like lethargy itself."
This ancient scribbling is notable in that it took almost no time to write. At that point in my life, I wrote constantly. With all that practice, it was easy to create skillful prose, poetry, lyrics, or anything else that took my fancy.
Lately, it has been more of a struggle. Except in summer, I don't have time for creative endeavors. I still create worlds and characters, but just enumerate the facts about them. There's no real artistry to the things I've written.
I've been wanting to do a fantasy novel for awhile. I know the basic tale, the name of characters, and all of the motivations. So far, it seems to be a brief history lesson about the story. I've described the economic and religious motivations of the parties involved and the origins of city names, but there is no life to it.
Basically, I haven't been exercising my writing brain properly and it has gotten flabby. This is why the constant advice is to write all the time. If you want the big gains, then you have to pump iron, or keyboard keys in this case. It is critical to find some time to write something every day.
I only have thirteen more weeks of class left this term. Even if I can write a little, a few times a week, I will be in better shape when summer arrives. I just need to keep writing.
Writing Exercise
Of late, I too have felt the pressure to practice or exercise my writing...
Your article is inspiring...now to figure out how to put pen to paper in my sleep...
Writing Exercise
I don't have to write in my sleep. If my brain decides it wants to write something, it won't let me sleep until I get something down on paper.