Blah, Blah, Blah

The Humor in My Writing Life

Some days, writing is hilarious. Maybe the content is funny. Maybe not. Sometimes the humor is found in the writing process itself.

The creative energy and momentum that builds by writing in Community is profound.

I love it so much that I volunteer to host Silent Writing sessions at A Writing Room. We meet in a Zoom room and write silently, in Community, for 60-minutes, then we have an afterparty for about 30-mintes. We talk about all things writing and the writing life. We ask & answer questions. We support and encourage each other.

Photo by Cliff Johnson on Unsplash

Recently, while hosting a session, I needed to keep my facilitation notes in view, so I began writing a new piece at the bottom of the same document.

As the timer ticked down, I copied the newly written 296-words onto the clipboard then pasted them into a new document to work on later.

The other Writers in the Zoom room probably thought I’d lost my mind as I flung my head back in a full-bodied laugh inside my little Zoom box on the screen. What could be so funny?

The only words that made it to the new document were, “blah, blah, blah.”

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

How apt!

Anne Lamott tells us to write those shitty first drafts! You can edit a page, but you can’t edit a blank page. The next time I have an opportunity to ask Anne a question, I’ll have to ask, “What about a blah, blah, blah page?”

With fewer than two-minutes left, I managed to copy the other 293 words and paste them onto the new document.

Photo by Maegan Martin on Unsplash

One of my favorite things about writing is the element of surprise. When our minds connect to our arms to our hands to our pens and keyboards – surprise – is the result. We may have no idea what we are going to write about. We may think we have nothing to write about.

But we do. The writing is there for us. Trust it. Always.

Connect your mind and emotions to the page. Write. Write. Write. Even if you end up with blah, blah, blah, and a gut-busting laugh or two.

Thanks for reading. Now - go write! Your words matter!