Write often. Write every day. Write when you can.
I’m just going to put this out there: I overthink things. I bet you’re all shocked.
My mind is a beehive of ideas; I rarely ever get bored because my thoughts just amuse me. I live in physical reality and perceptual fantasy. I sometimes need to remind myself which one is the real one.
Yes, I am a writer, and yes, I write often. I rarely take time off because it’s not really something that I can take time away from. It’s not just a want to write, it’s a necessity to write. But that’s not saying it’s a burden of any means. I love to do it. It’s the one thing that has always made sense to me. Life might get confusing and reality may be harsh, but in my world of South Coast, my characters are my friends and they know me. Things might get crazy there, but they’re my kind of crazy.
So I write every day, even if it’s something silly like emailing myself an idea, filling a Post-It with a character description, or writing an article for an awesome literature site. ;)
I write whenever I can. As soon as an idea sparks, I write it down. Since my mind is always ticking, I find that if I don’t, the wording evades me. So I always like to carry a pen or a phone, anything that has the capability of recording the few words or sentence that will plant a seed of thought. I have been kept awake at night trying to remember the most perfect phrasing of a sentence that I forgot in the length of time that it took to eat a bowl of cereal.
What I’m trying to say is that if you love something and you’re passionate about it, then it’s not a task to do it; it’s a joy. I wake up in the morning and my fingertips crave my keyboard. Each day is another twenty-four useable hours that I can jam as much into as I can. If writing is one of those things, it’s a successful day.
Singers sing.
Dancers dance.
Painters paint.
Drawers draw.
Writers write.
That is the secret to being a writer. That is the only way to be one. That is the only way to become a great one. As the saying goes: “Every great writer has one thing in common with the rest. They wrote.”
So write often, write every day and write when you can. Because you can.