Today, we have some Wiley Words of Wisdom from Writer’s Retreat forum member Isabelle Flynn. Enjoy!

Writing Through the Chaos

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that my life has been chaotic in the past six months. It started in March when I left my home of the past three years with my two sons. My husband was stuck behind to work and get the house ready for our big move. We were headed to a city only a few hours away but with training and some family visits in between, we had months to hang out. It should have been easy, fun, and carefree. It wasn’t.

I left with writing in the forefront of my mind. It was hard and I didn’t hit word count, but I tried. Boy, did I try! I wrote with my sick three year old by my side and I wrote when I felt like doing nothing but curling up into a little ball. When my truck was broken into, when my grandfather was hospitalized for a serious illness, when I spent the day in the hospital and then the nights giving my son breathing treatments, I found the time to write. Then I didn’t.

I didn’t write but I learned. I learned that writing is the first thing I question about myself when things begin to go wrong. I learned that forgiving myself isn’t easy but truly divine. I learned that reading can be productive, even when it’s not a craft book. I learned that there is more than ‘filling the well’ or studying the craft.

Just being helped me to renew my love of putting words down on paper. I listened to music that opened my mind up to daydreaming and story creation. I fell back in love with the tapping on my keyboard and the words that simply appear across my screen when I’m in the zone. Pressure is my enemy but chaos doesn’t have to be.

How do you get past the chaos in your life to keep at your writing practice?