Get inspired to write

Writers tell you to write every day. Read every day. They will ask you to take a piece of your day and set it aside for quiet reflection and journaling. Hello? Do these people birth children? Do they feed them, get them to school, run a house and hold down a job? I’ll be straight with you. I took six years off from writing. Enough time to move three times, have three kids, sell two businesses and start another one. My all-time low was when I looked up online “nice greeting for holiday card” because I was without words.

The day I dropped my youngest off at Junior Kindergarten, I went home and cried a little, then sat down and started to write. It wasn’t my best writing, but it was something. A week later, I signed up for an online writing course with Gotham Writers out of NYC. Having a teacher that held me accountable for my weekly assignments and a group of fellow writers who would critique my work, and I, theirs, was what I needed to get off my ass. Two years later, I finally finished a book I’d wanted to write for over a decade.

I was inspired to write again by other writers. So while I think finding time for “quiet reflection” is a bit of a stretch for those of us juggling our writing with family and work, it’s true that being among and listening to other writers can be all the inspiration you need.