It will Come When It's Ready

We were practising the crow pose in class and the normally tranquil studio was filled with thumps and thuds of falling bodies. One girl in particular sat up after her third fall, pushed her hair out of her eyes in frustration and said, "I can't do this!"

My teacher looked at her and smiled. "Your body is still trying to understand what you want it to do. The important thing is to keep practising. It will come when it's ready."

That night I settled at my laptop, ready to continue my novel. Five minutes passed. Then ten. I had written, rewritten and deleted the same paragraph and my frustration was mounting. Why couldn't I get it right? Then I heard my yoga teacher's voice again.

The important thing is to keep writing, I told myself. Taking a deep breath, I launched into the same paragraph for the umpteenth time. And for the umpteenth time my mind screamed, it's all wrong! I've never been one of those who can write without simultaneously editing my work. A sentence must be absolutely perfect before I can move on to the next, so this fast writing was very very difficult.

It took another half-an-hour before things finally began to take shape. From there on, the story moved as smoothly as a knife sinking into a cheesecake.

Perhaps this is something to remember whilst tackling the NaNoWriMo madness. Don't force, push or prod your mind. Your story will come when it is ready. Until then, just keep writing!