Sometimes the Best Writing Isn't Writing

Confession.

This week's Pen & Path post almost didn't happen.

Not because I don't have ideas.

Quite the opposite.

I'm spending two full weeks immersed in writing. First, with three wonderful women at our own little "writer's camp" in Prince Edward Island. Next, I'll head to Maine for the writing retreat I've attended for the past three years. You'd think I'd be filling notebooks by the hour.

Instead, somewhere between editing pages, reading drafts, talking about writing from breakfast until bedtime, and laughing until our sides hurt, my brain quietly announced:

"I don't want to finish another thing."

And maybe that's okay.

Because here's what I've learned over the years: writing doesn't always look like writing. Sometimes it looks like paying attention.

Whether you're writing a novel, keeping a journal, or simply trying to remember your life a little better, you don't have to capture the whole story today. You just have to catch the spark.

Sometimes that's a sentence.

Sometimes it's a quote you overheard.

Sometimes it's a name.

Sometimes it's a single image.

Sometimes it's nothing more than a few bullet points scribbled in your notebook:

• Brakes failed.

• Kind strangers.

• Changed cars.

• Unexpected friendship.

• Story for later.

  
  

Those five bullets may never mean anything to anyone else.

But to me? They're the breadcrumbs back to a day I'll never forget.

In fact, one of the most serendipitous days I've experienced in a long time happened this week. It involved complete strangers, unexpected kindness, a chain of unlikely events... and yes, faulty brakes.

I'm not ready to tell that story yet. It's still finding its shape.

Some stories need to breathe before they're ready to be shared.

So instead of forcing the words, I'm trusting the process. I'm collecting.

If you're a journaler, don't feel like every entry has to become a masterpiece. Write the bullet points. Capture the feeling. Save the conversation. Write down names of people that matter. Describe the sunset in three words. Trust your future self to remember the rest. Or the stuff that really matters.

If you're a writer, don't panic when the words don't arrive on schedule. Sometimes your only job is to notice. The stories aren't going anywhere. They're waiting patiently in the margins of your notebook, in the Notes app on your phone, on the back of a receipt, or beside your bed. Sometimes they just mull around in your head.

The page will wait.

Life rarely does.

So this week, instead of trying to write something extraordinary...Notice something ordinary. It might become one of your favorite memories.