You’ll often hear that one must write every day to perfect the craft, write and work on incoming ideas, catch and idea in its momentum. I’m here to tell you that I was pretty doubtful at first; however, I went on ahead and gave it a try, like why not, right? So, every day since I started writing this manuscript which has been probably since November/December I had a hard time. With all that goes on in the span of 24 hours nowadays finding the solitude to write was super hard. Until I looked myself in the mirror and said ‘what the (bleep) is the matter with you? do you want to write this book? yes. do you want to sit and write? yes. well then figure it out!’.
I attempted tried different things sitting outside, sitting by the pool, sitting at a coffee shop, sitting in the living room, bedroom, the floor, my sister’s dining room. I tried writing only in the mornings, only in the afternoons, at night it was a roller coaster trying to figure it out, honestly. Until I took someone’s realest advice, ‘just write’.
Simple as that ‘just write’, so whether I’m sitting, standing, on my laptop, on an app in my phone, in a notebook, a sticky note, a receipt, a napkin, something. I had been doing it without really noticing, so now I have the task of going through it and see what I can find. But just do it. Just sit down early in the morning or late at night, whenever you can.
Since then I’ve come a long way. I do have some days when I just need to catch up on life or think through the next scene or dialogue so a break is needed. But setting time aside to write every day will get easier the more you do it. The more you remind yourself stubbornly even when you missed a day, keep reminding yourself and you will find the time. Writing is a craft that needs to be nurtured for those that are already predisposed to it. So how about you ‘just write’.
-RM
Lemmon Avenue 