Filling Up the Writing Well

When I was kid, for a while we lived in a house with a well. Water was something I hadn’t thought much about until then, it was just there when I turned on the tap. But in the short time we lived in that house, the well went dry a number of times. I remember going with my Dad to get the water truck, bringing it back to our house and filling up that well.

This week, my writing mind was kind of like that well. Empty. I tried scraping the bottom to squeeze out a little more writing water. I set timers. I doodled. I looked back over my notebook for ideas to inspire me. But free writing about nothing sometimes just gives you nothing. So I gave up. I decided not to waste my time and energy on thinking about it and instead, I spent my time on the other things that fill up my life. My kids. My dog. My work.

Sometimes, the inspiration runs dry, and you need a little time away from it to give the well a chance to fill up again. It’s funny how ideas trickle into that writing well when you’re not even looking.