Writing isn’t always logical. The inspiration does not always follow the flow that you believe it should. If you get hung up on what you think you should be writing next, you could find that your words stop flowing. Your words can get stuck behind a cork in a bottle.
I write blog posts, articles for sale, and books which are available in paperback and on Kindle. As long as I write what’s ready to come out, the words never stop flowing. Running out of words has never been a problem until recently, when I allowed logic to dictate what I should be writing rather than going with the flow.
I had already written and released a dog book, Bad Dog to Best Friend, and had the raw material for two more dog books. Logic would dictate that I should follow a dog book with another dog book, except it wasn’t a dog book that wanted to come out.
Next out the door was a Yankee in the South book which mentioned a booger dog in passing, following by a book for spouses of coin collectors, followed by an astrophysical murder mystery in which the word “dog” probably only appears once in relation to Isaac Newton’s dog.
Sometimes you have to follow your motivation and throw logic out the window. By letting go of the idea that a specific book or article should be next, you can open the door to let a flood of articles, books, or blog posts out the door. The words are always there but sometimes you have to let them channel themselves in their own way.
Once I stopped fighting it and embraced the flow, the words came out like a veritable gusher. Not only were the words flowing as fast as I could type them, the ideas were coming one after another bringing the most bizarre connections. I’d be writing about some obscure fact and I’d find a connection between that fact and another seemingly unrelated fact.
This was happening so often that I was in awe. It was almost as if the backstory of the astrophysical murder mystery book was writing itself. Was I plugged into some higher power that was feeding me the story? Was there a higher power guiding my words? The facts were truly stranger than fiction and they came together with such ease that I could not help but wonder if someone wanted the backstory told.
The astrophysical mystery started out as a work of fiction but by the time it was finished, there were so many bizarre and unusual facts that I ended up including a bibliography at the end. For anyone who would take an interest in strange facts as I do, the bibliography would allow them to answer questions such as, “Is this even possible? Could that be real? Did such a thing actually happen? Does that item exist? Was he a real person?” Only time will tell if I’ve found a niche among my fellow oddballs of the world.
So the next time you’re stuck like a cork in a bottle, take a step back and completely clear your mind of all logic. Clear your mind of what you THINK you should be writing. Pretend you’ve got a day off and can write whatever feels good in the moment. Embrace the flow of words that want to come out and let them take you on a journey. Tell yourself that it’s okay to write something totally unexpected, totally illogical, and totally off the predicted path. Follow your words and you will be amazed at the place they will take you. Pop that cork out of the bottle and watch the words come gushing out!
