Ellen ES Ceely

There’s always an awkward period for an author between finishing one story and beginning the next. That’s where I’m stuck right now.

There are so many stories I could tell. Many I want to tell too. But I need to choose. I can’t write all of them at the same time. Some might not even be meant for me.

In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about stories as though they’re real people asking for attention. They knock on our door, ask to be told, and wait. But if we wait too long, they’ll knock on someone else’s door instead. Stories long to be told, and they’ll only wait so long. She even tells the story of how an author friend of hers ended up writing a book that she’d been putting off writing for years. A story idea they’d never discussed.

I’m explaining it poorly (she explains it much better and more creatively, obviously), but her point wasn’t to shame us into writing as many stories as quickly as possible in some kind of greedy, fearful story grab. Her point was that stories will always find a way to be told. Those ideas that really matter, that people need to hear, they’ll always find a way.

And it’s okay if I’m not the one to write it. The pressure is off.

So I don’t feel desperate to figure out which one I’m supposed to write next. I’m just waiting, discerning, and feeling things out. The story ideas aren’t going anywhere. That piece of anxiety that tells me to hurry up isn’t doing me any favors. There’s plenty to write about and plenty of time. If one story idea doesn’t work out, or isn’t for me, that’s okay. There are endless possibilities, and creativity is only limited by us.

So here I am, wading through the awkward in-between. Soon I’ll be wishing I was back here, at the first exciting spark of whatever idea I’m working on. Because as much as I love writing, I also hate writing! My house is never cleaner, my hobbies never more booming, and my social media time never at more of an all-time high.

So I’m trying to savor this time, this in-between, this “what do I write next?” as I’m pummeled by story ideas left and right as I stare at a blank page.