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S. A. J. Lyttek, a multiple award-winning writer, always loved writing, but didn’t arrive at the profession in the typical manner. After college and graduate school, she plunged into government consulting. In this environment, she discovered a knack for writing tests, interviews and other measurements. That soon became the focus of her career—reigniting her love for the written word. Thus captivated, she spent evenings freelancing “fun” writing including short stories, poems, articles and cards. When her eldest was a toddler, she quit full-time work to stay home and write. Eager to spend more time with her children, homeschooling intrigued her. From preschool through high school, she homeschooled both sons while continuing to freelance. An integral part of the homeschooling community, she has developed and taught writing classes to a generation of homeschoolers. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Gary, Mrs. Lyttek loves to share her commitment to homeschoolers and her fascination with the written word.
This week’s post begins after the announcement update about Christmas in July… It has been going so well that I will double the number of free books people will get for commenting on that post. So 4 winners instead of 2. Now onto your regularly scheduled post.
Far more often than I’d like to admit, that title word describes me and my state of mind. For someone who earns money due to intelligence, it can be a bit frightening.
But daily, I need to come to terms with the fact that my brain is finite.
What was the name of that rock group? You know the one that did that song?
Who was that friend of yours in high school? Remember, that one that went on to be someone famous?
Did I lock the door? Turn off the lights? Et cetera?
Our brains, I’ve read, are always working. I’ve also read that we use only a fraction of their capacity. Sometimes, I wonder about which fraction we use. Is it the useless (or partially useless) trivia section? I can sing along with thousands of songs. I can recite the quadratic equation in my sleep. But if the grocery store became nonexistent, I’m not sure if I would survive. I can only identify a handful of wild edibles. I’d probably subsist on dandelions since I know every part of the dandelion is edible.
The clueless factor that spurred this post though, isn’t really anything I just talked about. It’s more clueless for an idea. I had no clue when I woke up this morning what my blog post would talk about.
Often, I have the posts planned out or even written weeks in advance. Then, I get to a spot where the ideas dry up. What on earth can I write about?
Perhaps I think of something and toss it out of hand. Did that a couple months ago. Or, I don’t know enough. Or, wouldn’t people think I was pretentious if I wrote about x? There can be a thousand and one excuses why an idea won’t work.
There can also be an equal number of excuses as to why I should just give up and not even bother to find an idea. Writing, including the brainstorming part, is work.
Sometimes, I’d rather be lazy.
Why bother? Who will care? Who will read it? Instead, I should just let my brain rot with my latest video game or dive into a series of books and not come up for air until they’re done. Vegging is so much fun.
Writing sometimes just isn’t.
There are days when there’s nothing in the world that I would rather do than craft a story. There are hours when the characters shout so loudly, I only have to transcribe their words. In those moments, writing is a joy. It is also easy.
Then we get times like today. When not only is it not easy, I just don’t wanna.
I’ve probably written something similar before. This, for me, is an ongoing battle. It is a struggle between the writer I wish I was, the writer I am, and the non-writer I sometimes long to be. With the constant emotional push-me, pull-you it’s amazing that I have completed anything at all over the years.
In fact, I would have to go farther and say it’s a miraculous God-thing.
Because on my own, I’d stay clueless. On my own, I would give up time and time again. On my own, I’d choose the easy path over the hard road.
At the moment, I’m fairly amazed that this post is almost done, word count wise. So, I’d have to thank God for taking over again and giving my fingers wings.
But, I’m still clueless as to how he managed to do that.