Stop Planning, Start Writing
Writing is more important than planning
Writing is difficult, and I try to talk myself into I will write every day, and usually it’s before I hit the sack, and oh Boy! what sleep I have.
Happily persuading myself that everything would fall into place and that I would be coming out with great articles, each word and sentence would be as valuable as Apple’s stock, and people having the maddening rush to read my article. And soon, I will publish my book, which will become the NYT bestseller, and I will break into the top 100 wealthy-people list.
But the next morning, I go about my routine, no-writing routine. As a reader, you must know that although I don’t write, I do read.
I read newspapers, magazines, articles, and books (hard copy and e-books), but reading cannot replace writing. Yeah! Good writers are good readers, but they also write.
It’s like you expect to be a proficient driver just by watching driving videos or sitting in the passenger’s seat. To become a proficient driver, you must be in the driving seat and get behind the wheel. Only then you do understand the nuances and what exactly goes into driving. Your strengths and weaknesses, but writing is more than driving.
Once you learn to drive, you can drive without much effort, but writing, even if you create some BMWs and Porsches in writing, there’s no guarantee that you will come up with more BMWs and Porsches. Maybe the next piece you write is as good as some defunct automobile company which no longer exists.
What I want you to understand is if you want to write, write. Don’t make grand plans and forget about it next morning. Take it step by step, one word at a time, one sentence at a time. If you do it every day, sure enough, you will be a better writer than you were yesterday because I am not asking you to be perfect but what I want us, including me, to improve just a bit every day.
