On Writing

I used to think you had to write when you felt inspired to do so. That if you had to prime the pump it wouldn't be any good.

I understand now that you must "break the seal" so to speak. You must sit down and make yourself write. If you're waiting for the perfect time or the perfect situation, you won't manage to write a single word.

Don't get me wrong, there are times where I had to rip the top off a cardboard box and steal a pen or pencil just to write down what came to me. I felt like an Egyptian chiseling hieroglyphics or a caveman painting pictures on cave walls.

Sometimes I can't write fast enough. Other times there's not enough hours in the day to write one word. There is a lot of writing that doesn't go into a story or a poem.

Yet that writing, the act of sitting down to write was a part of that process.

Epiphany.

That gives me some breathing room. There’s freedom in that. In knowing that lightning doesn't strike from heaven every time you sit, or in Hemingway’s case, stand to write.

So, you write. You write because you are inspired. You write to inspire. You write to be inspired.

Always be writing.