DO IT
The best writing advice I’ve ever received is this:
DO IT.
DO IT daily.
DO IT if you only have ten minutes. If you only have two minutes. Of course, it’s preferred to DO IT over the course of several uninterrupted hours, but sometimes those hours are a luxury you don’t have.
DO IT even if you think the outcome will be bad. Yes, even if you think right after you finish, you will hit the delete key with abandon/embarrassment or wad up your paper into a basketball headed for the circular file. DO IT even though it’s the worst thing ever written.
If you think you don’t have any ideas, especially DO IT.
Do some other form than what you’re used to writing, or want to write. You’re writing a novel but you have ten minutes, DO flash. You’re stumped when writing an essay, DO haiku.
Write a letter to your congressman. Write a letter to the store that gave you crappy service. Write a note to your mom. Make it the best letter you’ve ever crafted.
DO IT in your head. DO IT in your iPhone. DO IT on a Taco Bell napkin. (I’ve done all of these.)
DO IT on paper. With pen or pencil, crayon or lipstick. You don’t need a computer.
DO IT when you’re happy. DO IT when you’re depressed. (Just don’t mix writing with controlled substances. You think you’re brilliant while writing, but rarely is it ever so once the fog rolls away.) DO IT when you’re bored.
DO IT on a plane, a train, an automobile.
DO IT at the doctor’s office. In line at the grocery store. While waiting at the DMV.
You are a human; you breathe. You are a writer; you write.
This is the best advice anyone could have given me. I’m not always successful in DOING IT, but I give it my best try.
