Start with One True Sentence

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning feeling a sense of purpose.

I made a wish last night for the September new moon, my 46th birthday month. My wish was/is to create art in a way that’s true to me and for me. To build something independent of my day job. What? I’m not sure yet, but it’s been a persistent thought for a while now.

So here I sit, in the darkness of a pre-dawn Monday, dutifully writing my Morning Pages, free-flowing thoughts on paper a la Julia Cameron, when a message came to me:

JUST START WRITING.

B-b-b-but the business woman in me needs a plan! A well-researched and highly strategic business plan. Goal! Objectives! KPIs!

These represent the ingredients for supremely logical procrastination. Who could argue?

The thing is, this project isn’t logical. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m letting my inner artist lead the way. She’s always here, but I don’t let her play very much.

And that’s when my friend, Hem, joins me on the couch. He offers to pour something strong into my coffee. No, thanks. He says something inappropriate that makes me laugh because irreverence and inappropriate humor is always funny to me when it’s not mean.

I’m not scrawling philosophically in a notebook in a 1920s Parisian cafe as Hemingway might have been when he wrote this advice. I’m not inspired after a night socializing with artists and eccentrics at a salon in Gertrude Stein’s apartment. I’m a working mom/wife/friend/daughter/sister/aunt/neighbor whose child has reached a level of independence that opens up a light of possibility for me, more time, more energy.

Will anyone read this? That’s not even the point, but if you are here with me, my intention is that this will make your inner artist feel a little more free. Just as writing this has allowed my inner artist to come out and play for a little while.

What does your inner artist want to do?