Don't Let Thinking Get in the Way of Your Writing

This short article on Lifehacker reminded me of something I try to instill in all of my writing students.  That you must always be writing to be a writer, and 95% of a writer's success depends on how well they do the simplest thing: Showing up and doing the work.


Thinking about writing and intending to do it is not enough.  You need to do it NOW.  And this is why daily practice is important. Even if you are not working on a specific project, you need to be writing about something. Even if it is about how your new dog, Rosie, is the stupidest dog you've ever owned and makes the 2nd stupidest dog you've ever owned, Sunny, look like a Rhode Scholar in comparison...

The practice is what allows you to enter the "zone" where you don't think when you write, you just do it.