WRITING

I Only Write When Inspiration Strikes

Fortunately, it strikes every morning at 6 AM sharp

Quote of the Day: 3/25/21

I first read the original version of this quotation I modified above in Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, a self-help book any creative, including writers, should read.

The quotation is originally attributed to William Faulkner, pictured above, an acclaimed writer from Oxford, Mississippi who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for two of his works, and many more awards.

In The War of Art, Pressfield talks about the concept of Resistance — every creative’s archenemy. Resistance is a mythical force with one goal, and one goal only: to prevent you from getting any work done.

Resistance is the writer’s worst nightmare. It will do anything it can to ensure you don’t write: it will distract, scare, criticize, plead, and entice you.

It is the most dangerous force a writer will encounter in his journey of personal growth.

It’s clever, too; need to submit that article but can’t bring yourself to finish the draft? It’ll rationalize taking a break. You deserve it.

What’s my take on Pressfield’s Resistance concept? There’s no denying that every writer — and every creative — faces obstacles to completing their work. These obstacles often take many different forms.

For example, I struggle with procrastination — I will delay starting to write an article or finishing up editing and submitting for no reason other than I do not feel like working at the moment.

In fact, I’ve struggled with procrastination so much all my life that I wrote an article on how to overcome it with 3 tried-and-tested methods I use personally to stop procrastinating on a daily basis. I still use these methods, to this day.

I actually used the 15-minute method outlined in the article to write and submit a few drafts that got published yesterday.

That piece on overcoming procrastination turned out to be the most popular article I’ve ever written for Medium so far. You can check it out below:

If I only wrote when “inspiration struck”, I would have a fraction of the articles published I do now. In other words, I would have accomplished a mere fraction of what I have done up until this point on Medium.

Inspiration (and motivation) are both nice, particularly as a writer, but I can’t rely solely on such ephemeral concepts. Especially if I relied on writing for something as valuable as my livelihood. If you have others to take care of, for instance, that’s a pretty big responsibility to chalk up to “inspiration”.

I can’t imagine looking my son in the eyes one day and telling him we don’t have anything to eat tonight because I didn’t feel “inspired” to write that morning.

I’d much rather suck it up and write. I have a knack for it, I enjoy it, and if I can use it to make money, that’s even better.

That’s my take.

I hope we, as writers, all overcome Resistance in our creative endeavors.

Awareness and knowledge of the enemy is the crucial first step. Good luck, writers.

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