Writing is about movement - moving your pen, moving your cursor. And going – going where the spirit takes you that day. Anything can get you going. Keep it simple, don’t complicate it. The important thing is to get going, to wade or dive in to the energy and excitement that writing engenders. I’m going to talk about ten things I use to help me start my writing practice but I guarantee you’ll come up with a much longer list of your own soon after you start your writing practice.

There’s a wealth of tradition, customs, canons, rules, and regulations associated with writing. As well as a whole industry of expert opinion. But none of that applies to us and our writing. We’re writing for ourselves. It’s like the difference between growing potatoes for sale and growing potatoes for yourself. If you want to sell potatoes, there’s a lot of laws you have to follow and there’s a whole range of business practices you need to become aware of. If you’re growing potatoes for yourself, however, it’s a completely different experience. It’s a labor of love. 

All the preparing of the soil, the planting of the seeds, the care in nurturing and growing, are times of peace, contentment, satisfaction, joy. The moment you see your first batch coming out of the earth is momentous, you never forget it. I can still remember the look and feel of the earth, and the sounds and light in the garden that day. And the first time you taste them is another great memory. I can still, instantly, call to mind our first celebratory meal with those potatoes. 

You reap this same kind of experience and memory when you write for yourself. Writing is also a labor of love, as well as an adventure of discovery. And it’s as simple as dropping a seed onto the page or screen. So, without further ado, here’s the list. It’s not comprehensive. It’s simply the first ten things that came up this time. Like I said, you’ll soon see that your own list of things to write about will become much larger than this.

1. Write about something simple. I always try to go for the simplest, most obvious things. Like - what am I sensing right now as I sit here?  That can be touch or taste, sight or sound, smell or space, and so on. I once spent a month writing about the same tree every day, and no two days were the same. I could change the sense I chose to approach it with and there was the fact that both I and the tree changed every day to greater or lesser degrees. Or, I’ll sometimes start with the first memory that pops up - like what I did yesterday, what I remember about the boys’ birthdays, my favorite anniversary. As you go along, you’ll develop your own catalog.

2. Start from where you are. Are you happy, sad, depressed, elated, inspired, empty, excited, bored? Pour it forth, whatever it is. Write the first feeling that comes up. Then the next one. Don’t think, just write. Writing is a current that’ll carry you from the spot you’re at to somewhere you can’t imagine. Somewhere waiting to be discovered by you. And that can only be discovered by you. If you don’t go there, it’ll never exist.
   I used to tell the boys when they were younger that I could see into their minds. They believed this for a while. Then the day came when they realized that I couldn’t - that no one could – that only they could see into their own minds. It was something that was truly theirs only. It was a momentous realization for them.
   No one can see what’s in your mind. And if you don’t look, no one ever will. Writing is a great way to wake up your mind every day, to enter your own personal wonderland and see what’s there today.
   And, of course, there are days when I come to writing after a hard day or night in which I’ve disappointed myself. Writing gives me somewhere to go with that - and that in itself is movement instead of just marinating. And I’ve come to know that I’ll get up from writing about it, or anything else, in a better place than when I sat down.

3. Write down the first thing you remember about yesterday. It could be something about yourself, your partner, your family, your job, your society. You don’t have to spend time coming up with a list, just start writing about the first thing that springs to mind. Then why? What was it that made it stick in your mind? If that thought doesn’t get a bite, then go on to the next. Or the next. Keep going until you feel a bite and start playing.
   None of us has any idea where our thoughts can go. But you can be certain that writing is going to lead you to something new, in territory new to you, if you keep writing. It’s always an adventure. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you start. What you can be sure of is that you won’t get anywhere unless and until you begin.

4. Write about something that made you feel good about life in the past few days, something small. Like sharing a laugh with someone, a sunset you saw, a glance of something that made you feel good about being in the world, happy to be alive. Write about a soft breeze on your skin, the taste of salt on your lips after a walk by the ocean, seeing the stars after weeks of smoke, drinking something on your deck or porch or patio in the early evening in company, or alone. Write about assuming goodwill about someone, or some other random act that made you feel good. You can, literally, start anywhere with anything and know it’s going to be the start of some adventure or other.

5. Write about what’s in, or on, your mind right now. Write down whatever scene, notion, feeling, impulse, person, picture, event, question, is top of your mind when you sit down to write. Don’t judge them as trivial or uninteresting. Don’t dismiss them as random or odd. Don’t judge them at all. Welcome all of it, honor it. This has come to you, and only you, in this moment. These are the fundamental things, the original muddle, from which all creation springs. They come before judgement, or any explanation about them. Act on what grabs you, write what’s available to you. There is the explorer, the adventurer, the risk taker, the voter for life.
   Generating ideas is easy, it requires little effort, it’s simply a form of daydreaming that’s more or less sophisticated. The best idea has no value if you take no action on it. If you start judging whatever’s in your mind instead of writing, then you’ll be daydreaming instead of writing. Take the action to start writing This is where your journey begins - or can begin if you’re open to it.

6. Write down what you’re grateful for in this moment. Or in the last hour, in the last day, in the last week. Sometimes I find it hard to get started on this, I’ve resistance to start thinking this way because I‘ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Or something’s going on in my life at the time that’s life diminishing. This approach provides a counterweight that can jar me out of whatever state I’m in, if I’m able to do it. Be careful though, because I’ve found that once I get going on this one it can be hard to stop. 

7. Write the stories of your body. I tend to focus on what my eyes have seen or what my heart has felt. But I’ve got all the other parts of my body going through this life with me as well. What stories can they tell? I’ve mentioned before how starting to do yoga revealed that I store or trap emotions in my muscles. And that waking up muscles I never or rarely exercised, and pushing other muscles in ways I wasn’t used to, also got me remembering things that had happened, experiences I had had, that I’d forgotten about or pushed away. This wasn’t a landslide; it was, and is, more like a procession over time. The pace is slow enough for me to realize what’s happening.
   With the benefit of added time and space I can look again at things I’d avoided earlier in my life or felt too busy to pay attention to. By looking and remembering I’m able to let them go and lighten my load from the past. We keep things in our bodies. We hold on to experience in our muscles. They hold memories and can be a great source of things to write about. Ask whatever sensation you’re feeling in this moment, where it comes from. And see where it goes.

8. Write about the things you’re afraid to speak of or think about. Writing with integrity takes courage. Writing helps me see more clearly, to get to understandings, to have insights I’d never have without it. Writing gives me a safe space to examine things I’ve habitually pushed away, avoided, and wouldn’t normally even come to think about. This includes things I’m ashamed of or feel guilty about, people I’m angry with or afraid of - things I would normally suppress. How all lives end in death. How life is different from our ideals or imagination. How life fails to live up to expectations. It’s cathartic for me because I get to understand myself more and also get to understand other people better, which reduces, or gets rid of, the fear and anxiety.

9. Write about your intuition. Intuition is the kind of concept I normally shy away from. But I added it here because I think it adds a bit of fun. The thing I like about intuition is that it can mean something, everything, or nothing - to anyone. It’s become a buzzword for some groups in the last few years. And it’s become a bit of a buzzkill word for other of us. Either way it can be useful.
   For example, what’s your intuition telling you about that tree at the moment, or that cat, or that picture, or that person? Or what’s your intuition not telling you? What is this entire discussion about intuition doing to you? What about the word itself – four syllables – is there anything in any of those syllables to write about, or not write about? Is the very thought of intuition irritating and pointless for you? Write about that then.

10. Write about your trip into yourself.
    Sigmund Freud created the popular image of the unconscious as this large part of your mind of which you’re normally unaware. Gerard Manley Hopkins created this image, which has always stuck with me:
    “O the mind has mountains; cliffs of fall,
    Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.”
    I know both of these images are somewhat negative at their source but I’ve found them useful as hooks to catch topics to write about by using them in a different context. Depending on your mindset at the time, you can go climbing the mountains of your mind or go potholing or spelunking in the caves of your unconscious. It’s your trip.

I hope some, or one, of these suggestions will help you to get started, or to continue, with your writing practice. The process of writing isn’t difficult and it isn’t mysterious in itself. And, it’s still astonishing – what you write and how it makes you feel. Writing is a way to discover meaning in the world, to explore our memories, and to express our insights and feelings - what truly makes us human. The soil is already prepared. All it takes is dropping one seed, or word, after another.