My distracted mind has not been on writing lately. It’s been on spring cleaning. It’s been on my son’s impending move from preschool to elementary school. It’s been on things I want very much to see clearly (and soon)–on the snow melting, on the sight of green leaves and yellow daffodils, on what the future may bring. It’s been on very physical things. No room in my brain right now for the mental work of writing.

Planning. Expectation. Preparation. Yearning. Possibilities. A desire I didn’t realize until it was spoken aloud. But that’s how writing works, too. Sometimes you don’t realize what you want to write about until you start writing about something else. If you’re not careful, you can write yourself into things you would never have expected.

Are you stumped about what to write about next? Don’t know which way to turn on the road of your life? Can’t see as far into the future as you would like?

Just write. Write yourself into a compelling story. Write yourself into a plan for dealing with what’s bugging you. Write out your dreams. Write the future you want. You just might get to know yourself better. You just might discover you have much more to say than you realized. You just might be able to re-distract your mind until the thing you anticipate has finally happened.