CREATIVE NON-FICTION
After 15 Years of Writing Every Morning, I’ve Abandoned My Habit
Here’s why I don’t write everyday anymore…
My daily writing routine was born as a coping mechanism in response to trauma that I’m not going to tell you any details about here. I’m not sure exactly when it all started and ended, but I followed this routine almost every morning for about 15 years. Even before I really knew what a flashback was, I was having them almost daily at 4am.
To take control of that ugly part of my morning ritual, I’d end the reliving of those memories as quickly as I physically could. I’d jump out of bed each morning and just type away on the computer, producing something. Anything. Homework. Journals. Lesson plans. Homemade class materials and assignments for students, since I hated most of the textbooks we taught from. Essays for other classes after I went back to school, years later. Once I’d graduated again and stopped teaching, I wrote stories and poems about things both true and imaginary, but I’d always try to be as honest as I could manage, even if only for myself as an audience.
I’d edit obsessively, combing through each sentence over and over, rearranging the sentence structures to make the most impact. Every word needed to be precise, whether I was sharing the work…
