Flow or Struggle?

Imagine with me for a moment: it’s a Monday night, the last night before your Almost An Author deadline the next day. Panic sets in as you open a blank document on your laptop.

The blank page mocks you and dares you to fill it with something meaningful for your tens of readers. What to write? How to fill this menacing blankness?

In the back of my mind, I get a germ of an idea, something that had happened to me weeks earlier with one of my students (It’s a bonus when you’re both a WRITER and a TEACHER, as students provide a plethora of ideas).

Yeah, I’ll write about that funny encounter. But what would be the point, the takeaway? I decided to start writing and let that emerge.

What happened next was a miracle: the words  . . . and puns (important if you write humor) . . . flowed. I entertained myself as I weaved the experience with funny asides and an eventual solid takeaway. The idea changed a bit as I wrote the piece, but the basic gist of it remained.

Wow, this one was easy, I said to myself. I wish they all flowed this way.

The truth is, it rarely is this easy. That whole “words flowing like water down a hill” doesn’t happen very often. Writing is truly hard work, and often I find myself pulling out what little hair I have (trust me, there’s not much) trying to come up with a topic and then trying to flesh out said topic.

When the writing flows easily? Be thankful for the moment.

When you are stuck in every way and worrying about your deadline? Be thankful then, too. Writing is a gift, and  gifts are hard to deal with sometimes. We struggle, we write, we rewrite. Hopefully, at the end of the process, there’s a gem of a piece waiting for the world to consume.

You have just read the latest one. Not sure it’s much of a gem, but I did pull it out of my mind, filled a blank page with it, and submitted it on deadline. Score!

Carlton Hughes, represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary, wears many hats. By day, he is a professor of communication. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he serves as a children’s pastor. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer. Carlton is an empty-nesting dad and devoted husband who likes long walks on the beach, old sitcoms, and chocolate—all the chocolate. His work has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Dating Game, The Wonders of Nature, Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. His latest book is Adventures in Fatherhood, co-authored with Holland Webb.