FlashFiction.Net

Some days I am full to bursting with words to write down; other days find me empty and sputtering. Writing has spun out of a passion, but with a degree looming somewhere in the distance that proclaims that I am a “master” of creative writing, I am beginning to question if it also should be a daily habit. Is daily creation the key? Based on the following quotes, it seems I can sit down diligently every day and type out the required allocation of words, but I can also spend time reflecting on my words and store them up for long spurts of creativity.

Muscle Memory

“Hold that pose for a few seconds…do it every day and your arm muscles will remember where they should be!” was what was explained to me by a bubbly cheerleading instructor as I grunted and sweated my way through cheer camp. It was called muscle memory, and followed the idea that if you repeated an action every day, that action would become effortless. Author Ron White states, “The harder you work as a writer, the better you get at it. It’s like anything else. It’s a muscle you have to exercise. I write more now than ever.” The muscle is our literary tongue. With daily exercise, why wouldn’t it become stronger?

Not only is daily writing beneficial to our own development and productivity, it is required to be able to capture the events of day-to-day life. Vita Sackville-West comments, “It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.” Too often have I neglected to turn a flittering thought over to the page, only to later regret that it had passed me by and was now inaccessible. Daily writing removes that dilemma as it enables the writer to catalog those awe-inspiring thoughts, feelings, and emotions that so often strike and then are so quickly whisked away from consciousness.

Lastly, there is this—short, sweet and brimming with truth. “Writing only leads to more writing,” said French novelist Sidione-Gabrielle Colette, and I believe it is the truth. My cheerleading instructor had been right. I left camp that summer with stronger arms and the ability to perform our routines right on the beat. If I practiced writing daily the same as anything else, it would lead to more product and improved results.

Mind Stew

At the current time, I am knee-deep in the depths of my thesis, and the light of the end of the tunnel that is graduation seems a long way off. While working on this piece for the last five months, I have experienced days of forced writing spells, only to later go back and revise most of what I had written. I have also gone weeks without penning a word only to wake up one Saturday with a mug of coffee and fifteen pages inside of me. These sporadic attacks of inspiration are what keep me moving forward, as the daily task of writing sometimes feels as if it is becoming less of what I love to do and more of what I hate to have to do.

One of my favorite authors, Virginia Woolf, seemed to feel similarly when she said, “As for my next book, I am going to hold myself from writing it till I have it impending in me: grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.” Something in her quote appeals to me, a certain indication that she was hoping to give herself more time and reflection before feeling herself full of what she needed to say. I have always been drawn to writing because of the freedom for thought that it provides. I find my fifteen pages of inspiration not through shuffling through the day-to-day, but by allowing it the time to grow and swell inside of me until it’s perfected and ready. I’m not saying to write once a month, but perhaps there is nothing wrong in giving it a little more time to cook.

Additionally, the concept of a more sporadic writing regimen allows the writer to partake in what is most likely his or her favorite pastime: reading! Samuel Johnson states, “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.” Other books are our inspiration and the springboard off of which we can jump into our own pools of thought. If we are spending every day hunched over our own little world, perhaps it will be lacking in a wealth of knowledge that could be brought about by simply reading others’ works.

Finally, Neil Gaiman reports, “As far as I’m concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.” With a reason as good as this, what’s left to explain? Writing daily, writing weekly, writing monthly—however you’re getting it done, at least it’s getting done. Starting at 1pm.

About The Author

Kristin Sparnroft is an MFA in Creative Writing candidate at Rosemont College. A former high school English teacher, Kristin now spends her days providing in-home childcare while working on several creative projects. Upon graduation, Kristin hopes to travel and complete a creative non-fiction novel that focuses on her time as a teacher in an alternative school.

For further reading, check out FlashFiction.Net’s suggested readings of flash fiction and prose poetry collections, anthologies, and craft books, by clicking here.

Subscribe to FlashFiction.Net by Email