How To Write More Often
One of four monsters is getting in your way. Here’s how to defeat it!
An old friend of mine recently messaged me out of the blue with a question I get from time to time from all kinds of interesting people: What advice do you have about writing more?
It’s rarely a question about writing better; it’s a question of production. How do you begin to move? Once you are moving, how do you stay in motion? And how do you do both of those things when you’re throat-deep in ten trillion other things?
First of all, I should say that when it comes to writing, I am a bit of a freak. I was simultaneously unable to make and uninterested in making friends as a child, and I was non-athletic and loathed the sun. I became very chubby and bitter, but I did have to fill my waking hours with activities, and the only thing I ever really wanted to do was write. I think this had to do with wanting the warmth of entering into another world.
At least 75 percent of everything I write is composed without the intention of ever finding readership. For some people, there is apparently a similar compulsion towards exercise, which I cannot begin to comprehend and seems like it must be made up. I guess what I’m saying is that we are all probably a little freaky in our own obsessive ways.
