One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves as writers, and those we love, is to wake up. Wake up the to reality around us, the people we come in contact with, what is affecting our five senses right now in the physical world.
This requires effort and focus, and discipline. It means no social media, internet, or ESPN for large portions of the day. Or for many days. It requires us to get off our laptops at coffee shops and talk with the people around us. Instead of texting our spouses, we get up and speak to them in the next room.
Technology is not bad—the problem lies in how we use it. If we don’t wake up to the physical world, we won’t be able to have a meaningful human connection, and our lives and our writing will suffer.
