Keep Writing

Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing. As a writing student, and as a writing teacher I have both heard and recited these words more times than I can count. So why does it never seem to sink in when I sit down to write?


Good question.


Writer's block is very egalitarian. It sees no race, class, religion, or intellectual barriers. It effects us all. People all over the world are affected by it, and with literacy rates increasing so is its prevalence. It's not quite like birth and death, which we all expereince regardless of how our lives are lived. But it is more deeply rooted than the globalization/Americanization of the world. I mean people choose to go to McDonald's or drink a Coke. No one chooses writer's block.


You see I'm trying to write up some materials for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, a last ditch effort for us to live abroad for awhile. Mike and I gave up on that dream a few months ago for financial and logistical reasons. And then last week Mike got an informational email.

What can I say? When things like that drop into your mailbox you figure maybe it's a sign. Maybe it's the one more chance we needed and have been looking for. But maybe it's another piece of propaganda that has surfaced to use up more of my already non-existent free time.

I'll never know unless I try, right?


It fits all our requirements, and unlike previous attempts, this time I fulfill all the qualifications with no additional training or certification. But with all the chaos of the last couple weeks and the exhaustion looming over me like a pregnant stormcloud I am stumped. I can't think of a thing to say that doesn't sound like it came from an 8th grader's pen.

I hate writer's block. I hate that I feel ineloquent, incompetant, and unfocused. So I am reduced to the old mantra: keep writing, keep writing, keep writing, the initial effort is the hardest, revision will be easier, keep writing, keep writing, keep writing.