1 min read

Just Write

Write more regularly and write for myself.
Life can quickly get overwhelming, and if you allow yourself to be paralyzed by waiting for perfection, you will miss out on many opportunities.
— Ben Norris, just write

This hit home for me tonight.

The last post published here, apart from the asides, was back at the end of January. I dislike these long delays in my writing here and want to get back to a better rhythm of publishing on a regular basis. Ben mentions in his post that he’s stopped writing as much in part because he is “waiting to have something truly meaningful to say.” I get that.

I have a lot of drafts sitting in Ulysses waiting for me to finish. I re-read them trying to get back into the flow of writing, and always start critiquing my own work. I find myself asking the same questions as Ben, “Who is going to want to read this?” Am I writing my best work? Ben answers the first question in a way that I can relate to: he needs to write for himself first.

I need to do more of that as well. I have always wanted to become a more popular writer like Kottke, who I have admired from the very beginning, but I need a more focused and modest goal for myself. Write more regularly and write for myself. Rather than have many streams of thoughts flowing through my mind each night, process them, and publish here. The Stoics thought that daily journaling was an essential task for the day. Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca each wrote daily. As Ryan Holiday says, “It clarifies the mind, provides room for quiet, private reflection and gives one a record of their thoughts over time.”

Will it be my best writing ever? Likely not. Will it be more therapeutic than allowing the same thoughts to torture my mind on a nightly basis? Absolutely.

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