Encouragement.

One of the things I’ve noticed about creativity is that when the words are flowing, and it seems like the story is almost telling itself, I feel really good. Like, I could do the writing equivalent of running a five-minute mile. I jokingly refer to it as “The Writer’s High.” I get really excited about the characters and the plot, and it feels like I could just keep typing and typing and never hit any kind of speed bump. 

Unfortunately, once I hit writer’s block or feel stuck, that excitement and joy all come crashing down, and instead, I start to feel discouraged. Oftentimes, I’ve noticed it’s better to write through it as best as I can–even if I’m writing scenes that are missing a lot of pieces and have lots of notes to myself like: 

(Find a name for this town.)
(Insert description here.)
(PLEASE find another word. You’ve already used “grinned” six times on this page.)
(Figure out a better way to end this scene.)
(Or some other magical mumbo jumbo.)

Yes. These are, in fact, real notes I have left myself.

However, it’s easier to edit bad writing full of my parenthetical notes than it is to edit a blank page. Something is better than nothing, even if that something is terrible. Eventually, I’ll find the story again and the words will start flowing, but I have to get over the writer’s block. 

Sometimes, even if I’m not experiencing writer’s block, encouragement finds me in other, more unexpected ways. 

This past Friday night, a couple of friends and I were driving past a part of town that I’m familiar with, but don’t necessarily go to very often. Restaurants and businesses change in this area quite a bit, so it’s always a little different each time I’m there. As we were driving, we passed by a restaurant, and the name of it caught my eye.

Veritas.

How cool is that?

I’ve been feeling like 2024 is going to be a good year for my writing, and not that finding a restaurant that shares the same name as my novel is necessarily a confirmation that it will be, but if nothing else, now I know where I should go whenever I have Veritas-related things to celebrate.