When you sit down at the blank page or screen, you have three simple tasks:

Trust.

Let go.

Leap.

Trust that each word that emerges is the correct and appropriate one. Don't judge.

Trust your imagination.

Trust past your imagination, which has its own limits, and trust those creative sources that guide and inspire you.

Trust the unknown.

Trust the depths of a passion you may not even know you feel.

Trust the light that kindles your faith -- your faith that one word will lead to the next, that two words will form a cogent and coherent thought, that each sentence will form part of a whole that is not visible in the writing of it.

It's easy to get so caught up in the word of the moment, the word that doesn't seem right or doesn't seem to make sense, that you cannot see the whole. Of course you cannot, for the whole has not yet come into its wholeness.

Let the words tell their story, your story. Then wait until the story is done to discern (not judge) where the meaning lies.

Trust each writing situation -- as you trust each living situation -- to be in your highest good. And it will be. In time you will see the underlying wisdom of your words and will come to recognize the wisdom in your life.

Let go.

Let go of any expectation whatsoever, including the one that states that what you write today will have any value beyond today, that it will serve or aid or heal or pay, that it is anything but what it is on the page.

No expectations.

None.

Of anything.

At all.

Period.

Let go of all preconceptions of form. Don't put your words into the straitjacket of a predetermined form. Your words will find their own shape and form. Your words will find their own place on the page, in the order and structure that suits them first and you second. You cannot always know that shape and form in advance.

Follow your fingers as they dance across your keyboard. Follow your words as they create the form that best suits your material, the structure that best suits your message, the message that best suits your readers.

No, this may not be the way other writing books tell you to write, particularly nonfiction. Outline, outline, outline, they say. There is a place for the outline. That place is not here, not now.

Sit down at the blank screen or blank page and let emerge what longs to emerge: those thoughts, ideas and miscellaneous strands that seem not to link with anything else. They do, even if the patterns elude you. The grand design will emerge...in the emerging of it.

Leap.

Leap onto that blank page and let your whole body fill it with its juices. You in your entirety. Your body. Your mind. Your soul. Your spirit. Your divinity.

Yes, your divinity. For every word you pen is an expression of that divinity. Your divinity is what links you with God, Buddha or the Christ mind or whatever higher power you believe in. If you believe in none, than your deepest, heartfelt truth will be the fuel that fires your passion. For they are one and the same.

Leap onto the page with that first word, that first godlike piece of creation. Then leap from that word into the next and into the next and into the next. And into the next.

Leap off one cliff and then off another and then off another. And know that you are safe. There is no splat onto the ground. Even if there were, it wouldn't matter. What matters is the word. The one word and then the next.

Keep writing and keep trusting that each word will lead to the next and the next and the next. For as long as you trust that it will, then it will. That's one thing I can guarantee. The words will always flow when you allow them to flow, when you surrender to them, fully...when you trust, let go and leap. Mark David Gerson has taught writing as a creative and spiritual pursuit for more than 15 years in the U.S. and Canada. Author of the The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write (from which this article is adapted) and the award-winning novel, The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy, Mark David has also created The Voice of the Muse Companion, a 2-CD set of guided meditations for writers. For more information on Mark David or to subscribe to his free newsletter, visit http://markdavidgerson.com - For additional writing tools, tips and inspiration, visit his blog: http://thevoiceofyourmuse.com

(c) Copyright - Mark David Gerson. All Rights Reserved.