On the simplicity of writing & week 39 of 52

The notepad doesn't have to be yellow (or even a notepad).

Have you ever seen someone look up toward the sky, as though receiving an answer before speaking? If you watch old interviews with David Lynch, he did this.

Once, in an interview on creativity, Lynch said that if you have a yellow notepad and a pen on your lap for long enough, the words will arrive on the page. Ideas come.

I don’t think it’s more complicated than that. I don’t think you need workshops and strategies and all the rest. You just need to sit and write. Or stand and write, if the ergonomics work better.

“We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination.”
― David Lynch

Meanwhile, like any meditation, it’s easy to forget that the process is the simplicity itself. The less we try to complicate things, the more it pours out. The more we talk, analyze, etc., the less it happens.

Photo by Rikki Chan

In other words, the notepad doesn’t need to be yellow or even a notepad.

We need to find something or some way to release—look up, out, or down for a while, then allow what comes. Maybe meditate on dropping expectations.

AYTL/writing prompt: Write every day this week, even if you’re not a writer, and do not set conditions on it. Write for a minute, an hour, or a few hours. No formulas, not overthinking, no editing (gasp!). Just look up or down or off into the distance and write.

Bonus writing prompt: Write a letter to your writing and submit it to our team at Unleash.