Show up. Don’t show up. It’s your choice.
Anyone who’s tried to write knows the real problem: manoeuvring the bum onto the seat. Sometimes it can seem like they’re two magnets with the same polarity. There is a veritable force field keeping the one from touching the other.
When I worked in an office — a long time ago now, thank goodness — I turned up. Every day, give or take the odd sick day, weekends, and holidays. In my more rebellious moments I may have considered bunking off work but it never happened. I was, in reality, duty bound.
Writing has always been more important to me than any job I ever had. And yet I showed up for those jobs and I failed to show up for writing. Go figure.
A friend this morning was talking about the trouble he had writing some articles. In short, he procrastinated. He was waiting for the ideas to be perfect in his head before he tried to get them on paper.
I know this process. The solution I suggested was to start. Start anywhere. Write anything. Get something down. Then edit.
It is only when you start writing that you really find out what you’re thinking and what you want — and need — to say.
Bum on the seat. Pen or keyboard to hand. Start.
Show up.
Or do something else and stop wondering why you keep failing.
