Can you help me get over my writer's block?
My husband and I have been traveling around on a slow tour of the Concord for years now. We'll spend weeks or months in transit from one city or constellation or asteroid or planet to another, and then more weeks or months waiting for a good launch window to open to somewhere we haven't been before. It hasn't been a settled life, but it's mostly been a good one. I miss having a home though.
Six months ago, we landed in an Atiran constellation and in less than a week all of our shipmates moved on. I nearly had a breakdown. Usually we have time to start to settle in to a new place before everyone leaves, or a friend or two stays around a little longer either to move in or to wait for their own exit. This time it was just the two of us.
Three days later, we met a couple while we were out looking for work and something just clicked. They showed us around the station, invited us to rent out the spare room in their apartment, and just generally took us under their wings.
We became friends, almost family, and they took care of us the entire time we were there. Even now, we still talk almost every day.
I want to thank them. To let them know what they did for us, and how much they meant and still mean to us. And so when we left, I decided I was going to write them a letter.
That was two months ago. I've started it dozens of times. I even wrote an outline. But I can't seem to get the words on the page. And everything I want to write either sounds wrong, or it's something we've already talked about before.
It's been so long now, my husband tells me I should just give up and we should buy them a present instead. But I really want to do this and I don't know how to actually make the words come out. What should I do?
I don't know if this will help you with your problem, but I do have one bit of advice for anyone who wants to write, or in fact do, anything.
If you're too afraid to make a mistake, you're too afraid to accomplish anything worthwhile.
You can write. You just did. This letter of yours is no different, except you're making it different in your head. You want it to be perfect. You want it to capture everything you feel and to bare your soul to the couple who's going to read it. And at the same time you want them to love every word and to love you all the more for reading it.
You want too much. A letter is just words. And no set of words you ever write, at any time or for any reason, will ever be perfect. You will make mistakes and misstatements. You'll cause misunderstandings. So don't worry too much.
For the kind of letter you're talking about, perfection is the wrong goal anyway. What you want is to be unfiltered. Be honest, and be fearless with your honesty. Open yourself up and be vulnerable.
And if you screw something up, or say something wrong? These are people you talk to again and again, over and over, day after day. You have time and trust and a relationship to work out any mistakes.
Plus, if things really go wrong it's not like you ever have to see them again anyway.
