2 things I internalised to write with ease—after more than a decade of stressful writing

Writing is hard. Good writing is even harder.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or a psychopath, or both. Even the best writers know that writing doesn't get any easier. You just get better at sitting through the discomfort.

You can build frameworks and systems to get yourself to write more. But until you understand why it is so, only accepting writing as hard isn't going to make it less daunting.

#1: Writers create out of nothing

Think about it; writers are perhaps one of the few creators who have to create out of nothing. We cannot go to a store to buy materials. Instead, we need words to work with.

For painters to create art, they buy paint and canvasses. Sculptors need a slab of stone or clay to sculpt from. Bakers acquire flour, yeast and eggs to produce bread. Writers, on the other hand, need drafts, and we know those drafts aren't going to write themselves

#2: Writing is mostly editing

Sitting down to write and staring at a blank page is scary. Because what do writers need? We need words on a page to whittle down and shape. Into an article, a novel, a script, or even a poem.

Like Michaelangelo said, "I just chip away at the stone that doesn't look like David," much of what we think of writing (creating our material, a.k.a. drafts) is actually editing.

So next time you feel the pressures of the blank page or of getting it perfect at the first pass, remember this: Drafts don't need to be perfect. They just need to be done. Editing will come later.