The magic.

Trust the process? Maybe just DO the process...

23 days.

That’s how many days of morning pages I’ve completed so far. Approximately 15,000 stream-of-consciousness words.

I promise you that when I started this process my mindset was not—“Oh, this is going to be magical!!” No, it was pretty much, “Welp, why the hell not? It’s not like anything else is working.”

Still, I made the commitment to try it—even when deep down, I didn’t really buy into it. I mean, really, what could three pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling really do? And I have to write it by hand? How inefficient.

But now I realize that sometimes, it’s okay not to believe in a process yet as long as you DO it and give it an honest shot. It’s not always about faith. It’s about action. Not all tactics will work, but sometimes…sometimes the magic will show up.

I shared last week that I had the seed of an idea. That alone was a huge breakthrough for me. I hadn’t had a new workable book idea since August 30, 2020, if we’re getting technical about it. That’s the day I started Good Girl Fail. I have written books since then (For You & No One Else and Good Girl Fail) but the ideas for those books were formed before then.

The creative drought/burnout was real. That’s more than 2.5 years, y’all.

So, I’m generally stunned to report that this week I was able to write a rough synopsis of the new idea and then present it to Super Agent Sara.

She loved it! (There were many exclamation points in the email, lol.) So, now I’ll be writing opening chapters and putting together a proposal so she can pursue a book deal for it.

Now, I’m not saying I’m totally over this whole burnout thing and all is well and fixed. Like I said last week, I’m kind of tiptoeing around, trying not to spook the muse. But I’m also going to celebrate progress. Because…PROGRESS!

And I’m not saying this is all about morning pages. I took a writing sabbatical for much of last year. I’ve worked on my health. I’ve adjusted the expectations I put on myself. Much work and nourishment have been done—hence the name of this newsletter. This is an ongoing process.

But what I’m learning is that the work is worth it. Not every method is going to work for everyone. Not every method is even accessible to everyone. Not every method is going to work every time. But that doesn’t mean you stop trying things or stop experimenting.

The feeling of being able to reach out and access that creative part of me again, even a little bit, feels so damn good. Like, oh, there you are, friend who kept me company all my life. It’s been a while.

So, in the spirit of continuing to experiment and not falling back into habits that put me in burnout in the first place, I’m going to try to do some of these initial pages longhand first. Longhand is working for my morning pages, and I wrote most of the synopsis this week longhand, so I think it’s worth a shot.

Like, “See, Muse, we’re not like working working. There’s not like actual pressure on this. We’re just scribbling on a legal pad and playing around with the story. Everything is totally cool. No one is ever going to see this actual page. Look, you can even draw little doodles in the margins!”

Me talking to my muse

Plus, there is some research out there that says writing longhand accesses different parts of your brain than typing. There are also a number of famous writers who swear by the process. I’ll probably talk more about all of that in a future post once I’ve experimented with this.

For now, I will just bask in the moment and enjoy having a story in my head again and excitement in my heart.

How are things going for you? Are you doing any experiments? Do you have to believe in a process before trying it?