Why You Don't Need Inspiration To Write

It's easy to write.

It's also easy to publish.

The challenge is writing something that's good.

Writer's block doesn't exist

You can write about anything. There's no such thing as writer's block.

The thing that holds writers back when they see a blank sheet of paper is not a lack of things to write about - it's fear.

This fear is all about how good the writing will be. We don't want to waste our time. We have an idea of the "shape" of the words in our heads, and are afraid that it won't come up as we envisage it when we actually put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

That's exactly what these daily rubbish posts are about. It's about just writing. I may not be particularly happy with all of the output. It's not as polished and well structured as I'd like it to be, but at least it's tangible output. At least I'm writing. Eventually I'll write something that's good. Even the stuff that I'm not as happy with may help someone. That can't be a bad thing.

Just as I was writing about it...

I stumbled across this post by Scott Berkun: http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/54-writing-hacks-part-1-starting/

The message is absolutely in line with my thoughts, and he provides a set of specific "hacks" for overcoming writing block - and just starting writing. You can read his post for details, but on a high level these hacks are:

• Start with a word
• Write about how it feels not to be able to write
• Have a conversation
• Read something you hate
• Warm up
• Make lists
• Switch to something harder
• Run like hell
• Whiskey
• Rummage your scrap pile

Writing something "good" is different

Well, kind of.

It takes time - and in my experience it helps to define the structure up-front.

It also takes a number of iterations - whereas just writing to "get into a flow", you just write it once.

I could go back and re-write big chunks of this post, but I'm not going to, because it defeats the object of what I'm trying to achieve.

Some day I may come back and write a new post, with better structure and more polished words on this topic. But at least this is out there. At least I've done some writing. It's progress, it's learning, it's useful for me and for you.

Even with structure you need to do unstructured writing

Even if you are trying to write something that's "better", when you have the structure you need to fill that structure with words. Doing this requires more open, free writing like this, followed by several reviews, revisions and iterations to make it better until it's write.

Therefore, these "hacks" are just as applicable if you're a perfectionist as if you're not. The reality is, if you're too much of a perfectionist you'll never write anything and never get anything posted. However, if you're a perfectionist who understands this process, you will be comfortable to write rubbish the first few times and to shape and craft the words into what you want them to be.