Filling the Voids

I’ve been a distracted, undisciplined writer for half my life. Great chunks of years have disappeared into writing hiatus. Imagine it like a vast white space in the middle of a neatly typed page.

A huge void.

Those voids I have filled with silly things— not my words, thoughts, or ideas. Not even the stories I tell myself. I’ve filled those voids with TV shows. Book binges. KPop. KDramas. Learning Korean. Dreaming of a different life.

Those voids which stretch longest are a splatter painting of futile, distracted, and obstinate ignorance of what my pen and mind should be doing.

When I read— maybe you can relate— I steal sentences and paragraphs here and there. Any lull in the day, I crack open whichever book I am reading and grab a few scenes.

Why don’t I do this with my writing?

Carry my laptop around like an alcoholic’s flask. Here a tipple. There a tipple.

Everywhere!

And before I even knew it, I’d have a manuscript for editing.