When You Have Momentum, But No Outlet by Ona Feinberg

I’m busy. I drive kids, snuggle kids,  make dinner for kids,  and take dog walks. When I’m busy not writing, my fingers start to itch and wiggle. Words, ideas, whole stories spill from my mind… and stop at my fingers. I have momentum, but no outlet. 

Sometimes, I sit at my laptop, a blank document in front of me. My fingers fall flat.  My ideas stick in the back of my head. I can feel them there. I imagine them jumping up and down, shouting at me through a lead door. But, I can’t hear them.  (Yet.) 

When I have ideas but no outlet, I jot notes when I can. When I have no momentum, but time in front of my computer, I write anyway. I write badly, I write notes, I just write. I’m surprised at how quickly ideas disappear when I can’t catch them, and how much bad writing it takes to get to something better.

My summer goal is to write.  As a working mom of three, there are (many) times when I’m not able to sit and write. Those times are still parts of my writing life. They are the breathing in, the development. They are the momentum getting ready to spring forth. They allow the ideas to resurface, all grown up and ready for the page.

How do you get past the hard parts of writing?

A “Golden Shovel” poem 

Inspired by"One Last Word" by Nikki Grimes

Every day you wonder, How 

Will you do the writing you said you’d do 

It’s easy to ignore directions when they come from you 

There are many ideas to get 

You need to catch them as the day zooms past 

Jot it down, or speak to text the 

Writing part can come later - it’s hard 

But, we can do hard things if we separate the parts 

Even the thinking is writing time, the pondering of 

Ideas. Even the not-writing is a kind of Writing

Ona Feinberg is a K-5 Instructional Coach in Central Pennsylvania. She began her teaching career in second grade, and started teaching 6th grade in 2001. She is passionate about teaching, reading, writing, authenticity, kindness, and her 3 children. When she isn’t at school, you might find her writing, reading, or walking her dog, Finnegan Foxy Feinberg. You can follow her on her blog onathought.com, or on Twitter @OnaFeinberg.