Writing is a habit, a routine. Like all habits and routines, it’s much easier to stop than to restart.

Think of practices like exercise, meditation, healthy eating, practicing a musical instrument… They’re all about keeping the ride going. Once you fall off the horse it can be hard to get back on.

When you start to exercise again after too long, your muscles hurt and won’t do what they used to do. Same with practicing an instrument. If you try to meditate after getting out of the routine, it’s harder to quiet your mind and focus.

This is all true of writing, but in addition writing has its own variation; its own special torture, you might say.

When you start writing again after a break… often everything you write sucks. Or seems to anyway.

Fear of this state helps to keep me writing. Maybe it’s not ideal to write from a place of fear, but a lot of writing (and of most things) is momentum. And I know if I lose my momentum, my flow, there will likely be a recovery period before I get it back. And it’s not impossible that I might get discouraged and stop again; or even stop altogether.

So I try to keep in mind when I pause for too long that when I start again, everything can seem to suck. But that hurts, and I try to avoid it.

“Apply seat of pants to chair.” – Mark Twain’s rule for writing

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