New Stories

I run a weekly writing session for a workshop that I am enrolled in. The purpose of the session is to spend one-hour writing. I spend it working on my daily blog post for the first 25-minute session, then we take a three-minute break to discuss our progress, then I spend the last 20 minutes working on my novel.

At the end of each session, I have a blog post finished that I post and parts of my novel finished.

Good right? Productive session. But wait, that is not it. When the number of people dwindled, I began to get discouraged, and my story changed about the session. Instead of celebrating completing my post and sections of the novel, I began to question if I was doing something wrong.

This is where I needed to stop and reflect for a moment.

I was asked to open a zoom room each Tuesday and facilitate a group of writers and write myself.

This I accomplished. I was never given a quota of members who were supposed to come; no one took accountability, I didn’t need to turn in stats.

I had composed a story, a story that success was built on numbers. So the more people who showed up meant that I was doing a great job.

What was wrong with this story? First, the story produced anxiety. Second, this story was out of my control. The reason why people come or why they don’t have anything to do with me at all. People have busy lives, commitments, outside expectations, all sorts of reasons.

The story was disconnected from the purpose of the session. The purpose of the session was to write for one hour.

Growth is not a bad thing. However, a story about the growth that separates you from purpose produces sadness, worry, and fear is not productive.

So it was time for me to examine my story, Reconnect it to purpose, and continue with what I was tasked with doing. Which was showing up to facilitate a group of writers and writing myself.