Day 24: Shutting Up to Write on Paper

The first completely full Shut Up & Write Boise event I've ever been it! - via

I've been experiencing the magic of Shut Up & Write for a while now. I'd like to think the sparkle hasn't worn off. And it hasn't. People keep coming in and contributing. It's a wonderful environment in which to steep, letting all the creative juices flow through you.

What's been wonderful to witness is the evolution of everyone's projects. Dick finished a book and is tweaking things now. Conda is working on another part of her series. Nick is trying to get people to back him for a indie publishing deal (like Kickstarter for books!) through InkShare. These guys are hardcore.

I didn't even mention Natalie and her memoir. She's in a tight editing crunch and I'm just in awe of the process. This weekend she posted that the Panic Monster was rearing its ugly head (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to watch this Ted Talk about what it's like to be inside the mind of a procrastinator). I suggested the following:

She never got back to me. She's very serious & probably hard at work now. ;)

But Natalie shared something with me that I'd heard before, but had forgotten (because we creatives only have so much bandwidth, right? Okay - we humans...).

Natalie wrote her book on paper.

Like, with a pen in a notebook.

I've heard of this. It's how I do ALLLLLLLL of my other writing. I'm super old school. I hardly ever take notes on my phone; I've always got my outlines and poetry done in journals. 

Seriously, I have at least 5 different notebooks with different purposes that I tote around with me everywhere. I totally get made fun of, but it works, because I know where my notes are, dammit!

Same goes for pens. I have no shortage of pens. I adorable pretty much any writing implement you'll let me get my pudgy little hands on. I have a denim pen roll that I squeeze two pencils and a Micron into sometimes. 

I really like writing and drawing, you guys.

So when Natalie and Lori from the group both shared about how they were transferring their books from their notebooks on their laptops and editing/adding things as they went, something inside me went, "Well, you've got nothing to lose."

I'm proud to report that after a week of only writing a post-it's worth of brilliance, I filled 3 (almost 4) pages full of delightful wisdom that I really am pretty proud of.

I guess I'm just had to put it on paper.

Thanks to Natalie and Lori for the inspiration and Greg, as always, for his patience and encouragement.

- Steph