Omit to Commit: Creative and Technical Writing (or Childhood and Adulthood)

Omit to Commit is all about the resources needed to opt into (and out of) behaviors, such as time, traditions (individual or group behaviors), trust, and treasures. By regularly making and breaking habits, life becomes more fulfilling and satisfying. I’m drafting a book called Omit to Commit, and in 2024, I’m posting research/your ideas/themes on the 20th of every month.

Welcome (back) to Omit to Commit, my book on the opportunity cost(s) of behavior change. Last year led to ample research from primary and secondary sources on habits, and I am so grateful for the responses! Some highlights include discussing innovations and religious systems as sources of short-term goals, as well as comments online (like one of my fave authors liking one of my IG posts!).

After a year of publishing book notes/research every month, I have had some time to reflect. As I learn more about myself, there’s a part of me who continues to practice technical writing and another who wishes creative writing would come back naturally. Maybe it’s the editor in me: Years of supporting others’ works has led me to shape my POV.

But my soul is perhaps best expressed via fiction and feelings. Maybe I am not unique in that way; creative writing not only sits inside me, it could be in all of us, waiting for just the right moment, person, or medium to be “out” into the world. I remember little me, scribbling on church bulletins and napkins, forgetting all the quarter-filled notebooks, thereby editing property to become mine. My bubbling words needed to burst onto whatever pamphlet was readily available, seldom making it to a page. The ability to turn thoughts into something was, in a word, thrilling.

So I now turn to those exciting moments once more, what was it in childhood and even adolescence where sentence after sentence, string after string, turned into creative stories so easily? Where poetry was not simply performative, it was just what I did?

‘Still writing’ might be my answer to combining technical and creative writing, as an adult.

This technique requires both sensitivity to feelings and intuition to thoughts. It may be driven by emotions, but it’s also expressing in-the-moment experiences. Or memories suddenly needing page time. I’m thinking ‘still writing’ might result in an adrenaline-fueled demand for expression.

And yes, most of it will require me to sit still.

I haven’t lost Omit to Commit‘s purpose at all, instead I’m finding creativity in this theme/title. Maybe 2023 was all about the former, omitting things, and 2024 is onto committing: Focusing on what (and who and where) I truly want and have wanted. My goal isn’t to create some ‘law of attraction’ regurgitation, you can’t simply ask what you want and expect it to be given to you. But you can lean into commitment.

That can be a scary word for people, commitment. It comes from Latin for ‘bringing together’, literally ‘com’ as in ‘together’ and ‘mittō’ as in ‘to send.’ So maybe instead of thinking of obligations, perhaps a reframe is in order. How can you bring together all the bits and identities of your life, so that you are engaged most, if not all, of the time? Including the scary, the less hopeful, the isolating? Can technical and creative writing work in tandem?

Leaning into those in-betweens might be the focus of this year’s Omit to Commit content, along with feelings-backed stories. By searching for the whys, not simply the hows, I can see a bigger picture of (my) life. Take trends from childhood, what do I practice/adore/honor today? And thus, commit to as an adult? I’d like to not just look at the social activities and associations, as I did last year. Instead, I hope to share the feelings of why I do what I do (and don’t do). Why I still write, run, and read, even if many of those activities seem redundant, word after word, lap after lap. Indeed, habits and systems are commitments.

Then, by listening to myself and actually doing the things, maybe I won’t have to wait for inspiration, or creativity to spark. I can find the beautiful, extraordinary in the technical writing, too. And find themes and syntax in the creative practice, honing my voice in all of it. That’s true commitment.

If you want to support my book research, all about the opportunity cost of behavior change, holler here on my habits form. Or just leave a comment. Conversely, if these new ideas and techniques seem to be missing or lacking something, just let me know! Your feedback is appreciated. Onto writing!