A Measure of Time

When I wrote Fearless Writing, I’d been teaching a workshop of the same name for a while and figured I could more or less transcribe the stories and lessons onto the page. Easy! It wasn’t. After two days of working this way, I was so bored I decided I had to write the book as if the subject was new to me. I had to find questions about writing fearlessly to which I didn’t already have answers. It wasn’t hard to find them, and once I did, I was on my way.

This is what artists of all variety do. We ask questions we can’t immediately answer. That’s our job. We create interesting uncertainty. Usually, we don’t mind if we have to wait a little to find out what our protagonist actually does for a living or how to get the hero off that deserted island. Sometimes we try to do all the work ourselves, make things up. The results are disappointing, to say the least. So, we wait a little, and then a little more, and eventually an answer comes. It always does.

Our biggest obstacle, usually, is time. Waiting means one opportunity after another to doubt that the Muse, or our imagination, or whatever we call that with which we collaborate every day, will pony up. Waiting means another chance to wonder if this whole writing thing is a waste of time, or why your last book only got 3.9 stars on Goodreads. Those kinds of questions just gum up the works. Your imagination can only answer one at a time, after all. Don’t bog it down it with these grim queries.

It's also worth remembering that when things are really going well, when the answers are coming so quickly you hardly notice yourself asking, that the first thing you lose track of is time. The only real measure of time may be our suffering and fear. When I allow myself to sit with the stillness required to hear what I’m waiting for, sit without judgment, without worry, I also forget about the clock. I’ll care about it again when I get up from the desk, when I have that appointment, when I have to do that interview at 11:00, but that’s not happening now, and now is exactly where I need to be to write.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com