Brainhack

37 Enjoy Being Blocked

“Writing is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

E.L. Doctorow

I'm sitting at my computer trying to write about creative block but I don't know how to start. This isn't the first line I've written; I've started and deleted a few already. I've got background material about being blocked and I've got various ideas of my own that I want to write about, but it's still hard getting started.

There you go, I've started. That's one of the most important things (as mentioned previously in Brainhack 20) is just to start. One of the fears people have is that what they create won't be good. People have said to me that they can't write. But of course they can write – what they really mean is they feel they can't write well.

The important thing is just to get started and not worry too much about what you're going to write or whether it's going to be any good. You're probably going to have to do some more work on it anyway.

Malcolm Gladwell says, “The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.”

“The important thing is just to get started and not worry too much.”

Whatever field you're in, you just need to get started and don't let self-doubt ...