I forgot how to write like a girl.

I only recently realized this had happened.

I thought I was doing just fine. I was writing monthly columns on women’s issues for B-Metro. I was freelancing for Birmingham magazine and WBHM 90.3 FM. I was regularly updating the blog for See Jane Write, the organization for women writers and bloggers that I founded in 2011. And I’ve been growing that blog and organization into a business and encouraging the women of See Jane Write to build businesses of their own. I even came up with a catchy title for this mission: Lady Blogger to Boss Lady.

But I was not writing like a girl.

To me, writing like a girl isn’t about writing to meet a deadline or blogging to build a business. Those things are rewarding and important. Those are things I have no plans of quitting. But writing like a girl is waking up early or staying up late to scribble personal prose in your favorite notebook while sprawled across your bed, hair piled into a messy bun because you don’t want any distractions, not even the curls your twirl around your finger when you’re in deep thought.

Writing like a girl is poring your heart out on the page not for publication but because you just can’t help yourself.

Writing like a girl is the craft of writing in its purest form.

I forgot to write like a girl, but a fellow woman writer reminded me. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading a collection of essays by Tyece Wilkins of the blog Twenties Unscripted.The collection comprises previously published blog posts — posts she wrote with little regard for possible page views but posts she wrote because not writing them was simply not an option.

Coming home from work each night and plopping down on her sofa with her laptop and a glass of wine was her ritual, her sanctuary, her artist’s way. It’s time I find mine.

For months I’ve been asking myself how I can grow a business and still work on my own writing. The answer is simple: Just write.

For a few moments, forget about building a brand or pitching publications. Just write.

Get back to business later. Right now, just write.

The yoke is easy; the burden is light. Just write.