April has been an exciting month so far for Freedom Reeves. There have been successes as well as some setbacks, but it’s all a part of a truly magical and rewarding process.

Let’s start with the positive:

1) My first published article was featured on Clutch Magazine this week! Find it here: http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/women-friendships-and-sex-do-birds-of-a-feather-really-flock-together/

2) I did okay with the 750words challenge, but after going five days in a row, I missed a day. Then I missed more days. As of today, April 22nd 2010, today was my first entry in a week.

My reason for doing this challenge was to remove the weight from writing. If you’ve been a reader of Freedomreeves.com for a while, you know that I sometimes go a while without writing anything. I can chalk it up to being busy (sometimes) or not having ideas (never) but in reality, it’s due to the anxiety that I feel about writing. I admire writers and I want to make sure that I give people the best content possible. It is a fine goal, but it is also a tad unrealistic, and I understand this. I reasoned that if I can get into a daily, low pressure writing routine, it will help reduce some of the anxiety I have about writing. And it has, to a degree.

But something about having that daily check-in time to express myself can produce anxiety as well. Every day, going to the page with no task other than to write 750 words. Sometimes I’m afraid of what will come out. If I am consciously trying to avoid thinking about something, I worry that the free writing will make these thoughts bubble to the forefront (BTW, click here to look into my subconscious http://750words.com/entries/share/97255). At times like this, I think about the “War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, which is the best book on creative resistance I’ve ever read. Pressfield writes that whenever you are embarking on something new, something that will help you meet a grand goal, resistance will hit you with full force. He also says that it never goes away. Much like people fighting addictions, in order to beat resistance, you must wake up each day, prepared to fight it. Fatigue is resistance, emails can be resistance, even making to-do lists can be resistance. The important task must be taken on first and with the most force. Which brings me to….

The no-so positive:

Out of the 100-page objective for the Script Frenzy competition, I have completed…seven. That’s right, seven pages. But it make sense, considering that I have been lax in my fight against resistance. With screenwriting, it is something that I am passionate about, but very new to. I took one class, read roughly six books on it, and I wonder sometimes if I have the skills to start. But that’s the thing about resistance: It often disguise itself as practical thinking. So you read more books, take more classes, read countless blogs on the subject. You even read other screenplays for inspiration, while the document on your desktop remains empty.

What I have learned this month is that new things require new thought. When something is routine or externally expected, you don’t have to put in the same about of work.

Now, a question to my readers: Is there something you’ve been trying to start this month? This year? How is it going?