The newsletter I didn't write

Last week was one of those weeks when everything seemed to land on the calendar at once.

I had client work to finish. My mom was visiting. There were dentist appointments. And somewhere in between all of that, I was supposed to write this newsletter.

I kept thinking I’d get to it.

Then Friday came and went, and I hadn’t.

I was annoyed with myself. Maybe even a little nervous.

I only recently started sending this newsletter again after ghosting it for far too long. I’ve been consistent for the past few weeks, and I don’t want one missed week to become two, then three, then eventually…silence.

I know how that story goes.

But sometimes life gets in the way of writing. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Because when I sat down to write this week, I realized that maybe I’d been thinking about it backward.

I didn’t send you a story last week because I was too busy living one.

Writers talk a lot about the importance of a writing practice: make time for the work, sit down even when you don’t feel inspired, be consistent.

I believe all of that has a place.

But there’s another part of the writing process we don’t talk about nearly as much: having something to write from.

You need to leave the desk occasionally.

You need conversations and interruptions and dentist appointments. You need people you love coming to visit. You need work that challenges you, errands that annoy you, things that make you laugh, and moments that stop you in your tracks and make you go, “Huh.”

You need a life to pay attention to.

That’s especially true if, like me, you tend to write about the small moments most people overlook.

I’ve built an entire business around the belief that you don’t need extraordinary experiences to have good stories. Most of us are surrounded by stories all the time. The hard part is recognizing them.

And sometimes, apparently, recognizing them means closing the laptop.

I’ve always thought of writing as something I need to make room for in my life. I’m starting to think the reverse matters just as much.

Sometimes I need to make room for life in my writing.

So, no, I didn’t send a newsletter last week.

But I came back with considerably more stories to tell.

Erin