When Life Processes Your Process

As a writer, process is important. More than important. Formative. Significant. Impactful. Well, you get the idea. So important that I needed 3 different words to describe its importance. Some writers have set processes. They have the flash of inspiration, outline, sit down at the desk, and write. I'm usually one of those writers. My discipline game is tight, even during tumultuous times. But what if you're at a point where there is so much upheaval in your life, that your process goes out the window? More than that, it goes out the window, drags a suitcase, and hitches a ride to a vacation at a beach resort far, far away.

It me. I'm there.

My life has gone through so much upheaval lately that my process has processed me. She's somewhere, having a virgin strawberry daiquiri.

So, where do I go? What do I do? I can't do the same, throw a wall unit AC through the window and take off, like a bird that flew the cuckoo's nest. Well... I think I have to contend with the fact that sometimes process is bigger than you as a writer. Sometimes, you have to succumb to life's upheavals and just say ‘uncle.’ Sometimes all you write is a blog post and that's okay. Perhaps while my disciplined process gets some much-needed R&R, another process will breeze into town with a nonchalant attitude and won't need outlines or white boards or any of that other jazz. They'll be just fine with conceiving an idea and letting it free flow because in the face of so much daily chaos, what else can we do but body surf through it?

In conclusion, here's a poetry collection recommendation – A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje. It's brilliant and explored so much about existence that it made me feel like my soul had been fed. Existential satisfaction, that's what good writing does. Perhaps it will help in bringing my process back from vacation with a renewed sense of determination to sit at the desk and write. Until next time –write, friends. Just keep writing, whatever that includes.