Simple Pleasures

Indulge

Verb - in-duhlj - To yield to an inclination or desire; be lenient or permissive with

Writing comes with so many rules. Curb your adverbs. Quash your pronouns. Activate your verbs. Start with action. Lead with character. Trim all qualifiers. Watch those semi-colons!

These rules, over time or at certain tender times, drain the fun out of writing. It’s possible – if you keep all the things you’re not supposed to do while writing in your mind all at once – to not be able to write a single “good” paragraph.

And that, my dears, is no fun at all.

So I say, don’t just give yourself permission to skirt the rules, embrace your excess. For a paragraph, a story, a day or a week. As long as it takes to throw off the paralysis of discipline and rediscover inspiration.

Embrace your purple prose and aggressive alliteration, run yourself dry of wases and to be’s, don’t name your character until chapter three (if at all). Treat yourself to lay writing, over-the-top writing, empty calorie whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles writing.

Run free of the rules. Indulge yourself.

(just don’t tell your editor I gave you that idea, please)