Sweet Surrender: Giving in to the Writing
I’m a person who likes to figure things out. I like puzzles and complex literary allusions. I like to understand why things are the way they are. I still haven’t given up on figuring out the Rubik’s Cube. This trait has always served me well in my academic pursuits.
I Surrender!
It doesn’t work so well in writing (or in life, for that matter).
There’s nothing I can really figure out. I can’t know what information I’ll find as I continue to research. I can’t know what conversations I’ll have that will change the shape of where this project is going. I can’t even, really, know what I will write or what I will want to write as the days pass.
I have to surrender to where I am in this process right now.
If I don’t, I will lose myself in things I cannot know. I will find myself frustrated and confused. I will spend hours trying to plan instead of hours trying to write.
So today, I will write what there is to say now, in this moment. I won’t try to get ahead. I won’t try to figure out what I’ll write next Tuesday. I won’t try to “see the shape” of things to come.
Instead, I will surrender to what I have before me, to the words of the moment, to the life of this sweet, sweet day.