One Word at a Time
Tim Gallen is a writer on a journey of recovery, rediscovery, and irreverence. He appreciates a good laugh, a good beer, and the Oxford comma. Read his musings at his blog, The Daily Gallen or follow him on Twitter @tim_gallen.
Ask 10 writers the best way to write, and you’ll likely receive 11 different answers.
But they’d all be wrong.
Because there’s only one way to write.
One word at a time.
Whether large or small. Long or short. Simple or superfluous.
The only way to write is one word at a time.
I’ve always been a writer.
That is to say, I always aspired to be a writer.
Instead of writing, I dreamed about writing. I thought about writing. I talked about writing.
The one thing I never did, however, was write.
By failing to write, I lost control of my direction. I lost control of my life. I began to float. Wake up. Go to work. Come home. Go to bed. And do it again. Like a hamster on its wheel and in its cage, I moved and existed, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t living.
Losing control of our lives makes it easy for fear to worm its way into our hearts and minds. When fear rules us, we resign ourselves to reacting to the world rather than proactively engaging it.
Like a journey of a thousand steps, my recovery began with one step. Actually, more like one word. Followed by another. And another. And another.
Writing is a lot like life. You can’t do it in your head. Sure, you can dwell on ideas, and think on thoughts. You can craft scenes and phrases and stanzas in your mind, but until you get out of your mind and set down those ideas on paper or on screen, you’re not writing.
The same goes for life. You can plan it, you can think about it. Heck, you can even visualize it. But until you get out of your head to fully embrace and engage the present moment, you’re not living.
For me, writing is life. And there’s only one way to approach it.
One word at a time.
What single step can you take toward your dream? Leave a comment…
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About Christine
I am a writer, a project manager, and a corporate refugee with a heart for orphans around the world. My two daughters were adopted from Ukraine at ages 12 and 14. I post about writing, chasing dreams, and making a difference in the world, and sometimes I share fun snippets of fiction in-progress.
First off, excellent post, Tim. I’ve talked and thought about doing a lot of things (writing among them), but I have finally connected the dots between planning and then *doing*. That’s how, in part, I ended up with my tattoo.
Secondly, the Oxford Comma really does need to make a comeback.
ha! thanks for the kind owrds, michelle. i get stuck in my head easily and justify it by calling it planning but still have no words to speak of on the page. it’s been a liberating lesson realizing the power of simply writing one word at a time, even if they’re bad or eventually get cut.
i tend toward the oxford comma, though i don’t use it at work. being a newspaper reporter, we go with the ap stylebook, which does not use the oxford. personally i think it adds clarity to lists and sentences. but i do know why newspapers don’t use it. the extra comma adds one more character to the columns of text and when you have only a limited amount of space every character/letter counts. so there ya go. fun fact.