One Line, Five Years

A few weeks ago while I was wandering around Brooklyn, I happened to stop into the Paper Source (for those of you unfamiliar with it, PS is a large-city based store filled to the brim with all things paper, among choice small gifts and paper accessories like stamps, glitter, stickers, etc). Whenever I find myself in this store, I always feel inspired. Inspiration was a welcome thing recently too, as I've been feeling pretty uncreative. I know everyone has weeks where creativity comes and goes, but it certainly feels like a while since I've been really excited about something. Usually I get geeked about trying a new recipe, making bento, cleaning and organizing, working on scrapbook pages, or going out for drinks and spending time discussing life with other gals. Lately though, I haven't really been able to enjoy any of those things. Blame it on the life of a working girl, and at that, a lady who's still trying to find her way back to "normal" in this new city life. But while I am trying pretty hard not to beat myself up over not feeling creative, I'm also looking to find inspiration in anything I can. Enter: the One Line a Day book.

Writing in general is one of my least favorite things to do. When I do write, I always worry about how I'm being perceived as the words escape my brain and make their way out. I worry that what I write is too "flowery" and not enough to the point (can I help it that I'm an engineer that usually thinks in bullet points?) I worry that how I'm feeling about something and it's relative importance (or lack thereof) doesn't come across on paper as it does in my head. Mostly though, I worry that there's no structure to what I'm writing, and my words end up coming across as my thoughts are most of the time; scattered. I tend to overthink, and I definitely overanalyze. Knowing just a few things about the creative process and psychology though, I know despite my fears that it's so important to just get ideas and thoughts and feelings out. So for that reason, I was really inspired and excited for the first time in a long time when I stumbled upon the above little gem. The concept of the book is simple. Every day, for five years, you write down one line. There doesn't have to be a flow of ideas, the thoughts aren't meant to be cohesive, and in the end, nobody but me is going to read it so there's no fear of perception. Each page is separated by date as well, so at the end of five years, you can look back on any given day and see your progression over time.

I'm hoping that writing in this book each day will help me to recover some of my creative brain glitter that's gone missing lately. It's only been 10 days, but so far so good. I'm excited to see where this project takes me, and to see if blogging will outlast the book!