Cute works

Sometimes my writing process is…extra.

It just is. I tease my fellow writers about our special notebooks and One True Pens, but I know that they really do make a difference. Sure, I can write without something cute to entertain me, but is it worth the discomfort, the fidgeting, the absent joy?

Last week, I shared how I’m taking decisions off my plate for my writing time: my ideas on scraps of paper in a fancy bag, so I can draw a slip and write instead of spinning my wheels trying to choose a starting point.

But we live with two kittens in their destructive era. They’re official Clever Girls, so I woke up the following day to find my carefully hidden bag and scraps torn nearly to confetti (my husband valiantly tried to save them).

I could have just used a cup. Or shuffled my new scraps and chosen one. Or gone digital with a random spinner. Basically anything but start my writing time learning to fold an origami box with a lid to replace the original bag.

It would have left me with more writing time, gotten me started quicker. One assumes. But I know myself. That cute red box perched on the edge of my shelf caught my wandering eye over and over again. Almost every time I came up against the tangle of frustration and insecurity that threatened to push me away from the page, I glanced at the box I’d folded and reminded myself that I made that. I’d started my creative session by creating something. Something cute. Something useful. Something that made me smile.

I could probably do that again.

Your creative process doesn’t have to be serious or strict to be valid — it just has to work for you.

Cute works. Silly works. Fun works.

Your way works.

Keep creating :)