Change of Venue
Yesterday, I needed to drive the hour or so down to the house we bought in Olympia.
I’ll save the reasons for the trip (and the ongoing high drama of that particular debacle), because that’s not the point here.
The point is what happened on the drive.
Before that, though, a bit of backstory...
You may recall that I started writing my first novel back at the beginning of 2020.
I’m still writing.
As it turns out, writing books is hard.
I currently have 164,916 words to show for my efforts and I’m nearing the finish line of this first draft. (Which is only the beginning of the work because, in case you are as unfamiliar as I was with what word counts translate to in actual pages, I’ve written nearly 700 pages…which is, ummmm, a little much. Who knew I was so long-winded? Don’t answer that.)
The chapter I’ve been working on has been rough. I keep doing that thing where I start writing, get a few pages into it, and then realize none of what I’ve written works.
So I delete it all and start again. And again. And again.
Ugh.
I’m a huge fan of the idea that showing up for the work is how most endeavors get done.
I don’t work on my novel only in the moments I feel “inspired.”
I work on my novel for about two hours every morning before I begin my workday, whether I feel inspired or not.
Butt-in-chair-typing is my approach 99% of the time.
But sometimes even that doesn’t work.
And this chapter was beginning to get the better of me.
So when the hiccup that led me to make the drive yesterday happened, I wasn’t particularly sad to step away from my planned day of writing, though I brought my computer and notebook just in case.
I treated myself to a fancy coffee for the drive, turned off my ringer, and settled into my current audiobook for the hour or so I was going to be in the car.
Now, while there are some pretty sections, most of this drive is six-lane highway and construction, the usual array of parking lots and billboards and traffic.
Not inspiring.
So I had to laugh when, about 20 minutes or so in, I had exactly the breakthrough I needed.
The answer to how to fix this chapter pretty much leapt up and bit me on the nose.
It was so simple and obvious that it might have been disheartening if I weren’t just so damn thrilled.
Which served to remind me of a basic lesson that I can forget and maybe you do, too:
Sometimes, to find the solution we’re looking for, we just need to get out of our heads.
My knee-jerk response to a block or a problem is to hammer it to death.
I can be a little dog-with-a-bone-ish about it.
And while occasionally that works, more often than not, it’s pausing for a moment and stepping away to do something else, that unlocks the solution.
Maybe it’s going for a walk somewhere beautiful.
Maybe it’s grabbing coffee with a friend (when that’s a thing again…we’re sooooo close! I can’t wait.).
Or maybe it’s driving down an ugly stretch of highway and just enjoying some entertainment for an hour.
But the key here is to actually take our brain out of problem-solving mode for a minute.
To change up what we’re thinking about and how we’re doing that thinking.
I’ve logged a lot of time at this desk lately.
Between work stuff and Zoom calls and writing the novel and recording the podcast, the 10 square feet around this computer are where I’m spending a whole lot of my life these days.
I know I’m not alone in that.
So I thought maybe you might appreciate the lesson I learned again yesterday for the 697th time…
Sometimes a little change of venue and brain space is exactly what we need in order to do the things that matter to us.
How might that look for you this week?
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Before I go, 2 quick things:
1. Registration is open for the next Say The Word retreat:
In Embracing The Second Half we'll look at what’s worked and what hasn’t from the first half of this year and dig into how we’d like to move forward into the second half!
May 22, 2021
12-4pm EST
$79 early-bird pricing until 5.1.21
Seats are limited
2. Thank you to everyone who’s sent me their quotes and favorite lines from their reading for the podcast— I so appreciate it!
I’m always looking for more, so don’t be shy!
If you’d like to be notified via email when new episodes come out, sign up HERE!
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Alrighty!
I hope you'll tell me about what a change of venue might look like for you this week, register for the May retreat, and send along your favorite bits of reading.
Have a great week and as always...
Stay curious out there, my friend.