I swore up and down, I would blog more often when  I committed to Jon Acuff’s Start Experiment. I took on the challenge and then lost my groove.

Courtesy of Creative Commons

Ugh! I hate when that happens, don’t you? You tell yourself you are going to do this or that, and then your enthusiasm dwindles down to nothing.

I can tell you what happened to me.

It’s called the perils of self-editing by thinking too much of you.

Yes, let me explain.

I would start by writing a blog post and then tell myself, oh no, my audience isn’t going to like this at all. Scratch that.

The next day, the same thing happens.

I convinced myself that the content wasn’t any good. What kind of person would I be if I allowed you to read something painstakingly awful?

I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that to you.

So… one day turned into two days, a week into two weeks and you get the picture.

No writing. No nada. Zilch.

Today I’m writing because like Stella, I want to get my groove back. Except in this case, it’s my writing groove.

So if this is awful, I’m sorry, but like Jeff Goins says, I have to practice [and fail] in front of an audience.

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This concept reminds me of when I was in professional acting school.

We had to practice and rehearse our scenes in front of a live audience.

It was torture.

Every day we would get up in front of everyone and practice whatever assignment was given by the instructor.

I remember one acting teacher in particular who would stare at me with her big, laser beam eyes. As if her eyes were piercing into my soul. I felt exposed and naked. It made me nervous.

She scared me. But as painful as the process was, I learned the most from this teacher.

I learned that by risking and getting critiqued, I was growing in my craft. I despised the process, but my art wound up better for it.

The same applies to writing. We have to take the risk and put ourselves out there. This is the only way we’ll learn and grow as writers. There is no other way.

Have you lost your groove? If so, what do you do to get your groove back?