Just Write

 

"Here is a man who is turning the emptiness of space into a sheet of paper, the waves of the ocean into an inkwell and Mount Sumeru into a brush."       

 - Hoyen of Gosozen, 12th century

The shot will go most smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise." 

Eugen Herriged,  Zen in the Art of Archery.

A Zen view of how to write advises that our "artless art" must flow out of the subconscious. Doing is not doing. Technical knowledge does not provide enough. Practice relenting to the process.

Like a muscle, the more we write, the more we gain strength and momentum.

When we pay attention to our "every day mind" and moments in movement, we will happen upon ways to express our emotions and thoughts. Awareness makes us alert to all possibilities.

What just zoomed by?  How does that connect to a coffee aroma? How does satisfaction taste?  What if . . . and then what?

How can the write art become purposeless? Aimless?  If we attempt  to intellectualize it,  we've lost the moment. We need to write. 

Lao Tzu's water metaphor fits the writer's life. Go with the flow. Trickle or rush around obstacles. Exert and deluge. 

Writers need the surprise that delights when swimming in words. Let it happen.

Take a day without a goal. Write to float, swim or splash about in words without  a destination,  Just write.