LAZINESS KILLED THE MOJO

Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls) by Foster People

To everything there is a season – no truer words when it comes to my creativity. Autumn is the most industrious season, and the momentum carries well into winter and spring. Unfortunately, by summer my writing takes an unearned extended vacation. Perhaps this tendency subliminally harks back to a childhood of barefoot summers running amuck followed by back-to-school days with the smell of sharpened pencils and crisp new textbooks that set the mood for learning. Even in these techie times of typing madly on my laptop, I notice that the long-forgotten bump on my middle finger – the one that grew ever more calloused with each handwritten term paper back in the no-tech age – rears its dented little head in the fall as I scribble scintillating sentences and flip off any lazy notions that try to lure me away from my desk.

Alas, the battle back to momentum is grueling. If you love doing something, don’t ever stop. The risk of lost mojo is too great. Like many skills, writing is a bit like riding a bike… once you know how to do it, you never forget. But it’s even more like a sport… slack off in practice and you lose your technique, conditioning, probably even your spot on the team. Keep doing whatever it is you love and don’t stop – even if it’s just a little bit every damn day. I spent half of September crawling my way back to the writing desk and most of October angsting for inspiration. Just in time for November’s NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth, the mojo is coming back. Keep the crayons out of the box and never stop coloring on those walls.