On the journey to complete a novel the hardest part is starting. Not just starting at the beginning but starting each and every day.
To write means to put on paper what’s inside your head.
It’s to expose yourself to many about how you think and ultimately to be judged or graded on that.
That in it self is enough to hold back and never do it. That’s why those that keep journals lock them away so the reading is hidden from others.
It’s a paradox, you want to write and put it down, for the ideas to be heard by more than just your own mind, but yet you also fear they aren’t good enough.
There are a million reasons you can, and will, delay or defer the start each day. Too busy, not well, mental blocks and so many more reasons.
All excuses.
This morning I reflected on a poster in my gym with a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger:
You can have results or excuses. Not both.
I think that is true too for the writing. You either write or you don’t. Once you start you can always make it better. But you must start or you can never reach the goal.
The most important driving force or motivation for you to write must be that intangible statement that it lives inside. Like any serious climber when asked why they risk their lives, they will reply: “Because it’s there”. For the writer it’s “because it is in there”.
You can drink, eat, exercise, work {inert anything other than writing} but ultimately your writing is still in there. You are the channel from which it can spring forth.
Without you it has nowhere to go.
The good or bad of it is irrelevant. Who is to say what is good or bad.
Your creation may not be liked by many people, but the art of writing isn’t about popularity – that’s the business of writing. Perhaps what you write it isn’t a literary marvel. Yes maybe you are inexperienced or untrained.
Many great works have been created from people untrained or unskilled. Many great works were made by first timers, those who just had to get it out.
They created. They are creative and eventually their creativity forced it’s way out. That’s what you must do. To bottle it up and leave it never created is a crime against your soul.
The expression “don’t die with your music still in you” is a call to all artists, all creators of anything.
Write, draw, paint, sing compose…. Whatever it is. Do it. Do it now. In little steps, one stroke, one word, one note at a time. Let it be rough, let it be bad just let it be!
When you start drawing after a long break it is awkward, difficult and your ability to perceive and translate it to paper is difficult. But creation it still is. With time you adjust, you improve or you simply feel more comfortable with what you are creating.
If you are called you must answer. There can never be enough people creating from their heart, from within.
There are a million reasons to not write. Just find the one that gets you to write the first word. Each day.
