Keep on Writing

Sometimes a couple of weeks pass, or a couple of months or years, and you realize you haven't been writing at all.

It's especially hard when you just announced that you were planning to write daily.

Online Writing and Being Self-Conscious

When I was younger, I wasn't so self-conscious. I had a fictional online diary, I posted every day, and I really didn't care who read it.

The years have changed me and made it hard to start writing so publicly, especially picking up writing again whenever I stop. I tell myself I'm too old to care what anyone thinks, I avoid posting my new writing anywhere online besides this site, and yet I still worry.

You Already Know the Answer

This article is really just advice for myself. I already know what I have to do when the writer's block cycle starts. I just have to open up a place to write (like the WriterStead article editor) and start typing freeform, whatever's on my mind.

Don't Think

Last month when I took surf lessons, my surf instructor noticed that I did better when I didn't think. It was when I thought too hard about my foot placement, balance, or fundamentals that I fell off the board.

When I get into this overthinking state, even trying to organize my thoughts into a good article feels impossible. All I can do is type whatever words pop into my head.

Organic Free-Form Thoughts Are Beautiful

I always feel weird about writing my stream-of-consciousness thoughts down. But then when I read them later, they're quite nice to read.

Free-form thoughts may be messy and go in different directions. It feels weird to publish raw material like this. But do it. Don't always feed your thoughts into AI to clean up and organize. It's the rawest words straight from you, even undigested and strewn all over, that are your art. They're beautiful. Let them exist.