I’ve heard Shauna Niequist and Jen Hatmaker say before that good writers need to be in the habit of reading. Before writing the blog entry High Dive, I hadn’t written anything in MONTHS. But I had been reading…a lot. The Anne of Green Gables series, specifically Anne’s House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside, inspired me to really pursue my passions unabashedly.
I just finished the last book of the series and I read the final pages of that book slowly so I wouldn’t have to say goodbye to Anne too quickly. The series begins when she is a child and ends when she’s a mother. I don’t want to give away any plot spoilers, but she makes me laugh and smile and feel that life is beautiful if only I take the time to let my imagination run wild. One of the books, Anne’s House of Dreams, is where my blog title came from. The following quote from Anne expresses how I feel and what I want to do with my life…
I highly encourage you to read Anne if you need someone to remind you of the beauty in life despite the circumstances, if you need a laugh, or are in need of a “kindred spirit.”
The next book that I recommend is Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham. If you are a Gilmore Girls fan, then this is an obvious must-read as she binges watches the first seasons of the series and shares her memories while also sharing some journal entries she wrote while filming the Netflix reboot Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. But what really inspired me was the chapter called “Kitchen Timer.” Lauren shares the wisdom she was given when she was struggling through writing her first novel.
“The principle of Kitchen Timer is that every writer deserves a definite and doable way of being and feeling successful everyday” (Talking As Fast As I Can, p. 144).
This little tidbit is from the directions Lauren was given by a well-known screenwriter. I don’t want to give away everything (go pick up the book!), but it doesn’t matter if you are writing a book/screenplay/blog or if you aren’t even writing at all. The whole idea applies to any creator. You need to give yourself permission to do the work and feel successful every day without the pressure to create perfection each time. This principle is what inspired me to get moving on this blog and chase after my other dreams.
I’ve been dedicating time every day to write, whether it is in my journal or for the blog. But I’m stuck. Anything I’ve started doesn’t feel worth pursuing and the passion I had at the beginning is fading. I forgot the principle of the Kitchen Timer.
If I reframe my mindset, I might have a better perspective. I may notice that I have been dedicating time every day to write uninterrupted (mostly). I’ve been achieving the goal I set out to do.
I think I’m going to give myself the same advice I gave my 6 year old when she was frustrated with having to practice her handwriting every day:
Keep doing the work.
We practice now to develop skills that will (hopefully) come naturally later. So today I wrote, even though when I first opened my computer I had no idea what thoughts would make it on the page. (Isn’t it ironic that my daughter was struggling with the discipline of handwriting? Like mother, like daughter?)
Also, if I want to have a healthy writing habit, I think I need to have a healthy reading habit. So I’m off to read a book that can give me inspiration. I’ve started Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and I’m almost done with Everybody Always by Bob Goff. I also have Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming in my stack.
What books have inspired you? What do you do when you get stuck? How have you pushed past your own creative ruts?
House of Dreams 