Accepting the Invitation

When do you accept the invitation to step into the water, to begin the process of swimming that will take you into the unknown territory of a new story?

The invitation can come at any time or place. You might be standing in the shower rinsing your hair or getting into bed or folding laundry after dinner and, as you reach into the laundry basket for another napkin to fold, the invitation strikes with such force that you need to sit down with a notebook and pen and start writing.

It can come in the form of an idea for a plot or in the shape of a character, or it can come as a wisp of desire, a hint of emotion, a faint stirring of something that you’ve never seen or felt before, and you know that you’ve been invited into another world.

But do you accept the invitation?

Do you make arrangements to put aside whatever you think needs to be done--finish this e-mail, empty the dryer, pick up the groceries--in order to explore this invitation further?

Do you leave the laundry unfolded, the dishes in the sink, the beds unmade?

Does the invitation compel you to sit down and write? Or does it frighten you, make you anxious, cause you to wonder if you have the stamina, the endurance, the talent, the ability to accept the invitation and dive into this new world?

At some point, you’ll need to make a decision to accept the invitation or put it aside. You’ll have to choose whether you want to leap into the unknown or stay on shore a while longer with what you already know.

It’s a mystery, isn’t it, how we receive these invitations, and why we receive them and not others, and what we feel in response?

The invitation can find you anywhere–in bed, in the shower, in the garden, on the dance floor, on a bike, on a yoga mat.

Will you accept the invitation?

Or will you decide to wait until your life is perfect and there are no distractions and you have enough time?

It’s your choice.

What will you decide?

For more on the challenges of starting new projects, visit:
http://the-confident-writer.net/tag/goal-setting/
http://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/2012/02/starting-new-writing-project-is-like.html
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/12/staring-at-abyss.html
http://www.squidoo.com/unfinished-writing-projects