The key to writing is simple.
Write.
See? Simple.
I have tried to find ways to motivate myself to write regularly because I know if I do it builds momentum that carries me along from one writing project–however big or small–to the next. I have done what many aspiring writers have done. I’ve read books designed to educate, to inspire, to prod and nag and drive you to the computer, typewriter (ho ho) or quill pen and legal pad (HarlanWrite™), I’ve tried the stick approach (“No cookie until I finish this page”), I’ve tried the carrot (“If I type a paragraph, I get a kitten. Yay kitten!” This is an actual thing, by the way. See here: Written? Kitten!), I’ve tried pretty much any approach one might come across in a few decades or more of cranking out words.
In the end I don’t have any magical, surefire technique to motivate myself, but somehow I always fumble my way back to writing. Sometimes I lapse for a few days or weeks, sometimes for years. The fallow years make me sad but not regretful. If I had written during those times it probably would have been about werewolf sex.
After hurting my right leg on August 3rd–three days into my vacation–I knew I would probably not run for the rest of the month and possibly longer. This bummed me out. Running is not only good exercise for me, it’s also great stress relief. When I’m out on a trail running on a warm summer day, serenaded by the music piping through my earbuds, I feel good. Not even wayward cyclists can bother me. To have this activity suddenly shut off made me think, “My blog isn’t going to be filled with jogging posts for weeks.” I had a choice–let the blog go dry until I started running again, fill the blog up with complaints about how I wasn’t running or, perhaps, actually write about things other than running.
I vowed then to write something every day. I didn’t actually start until August 19th but every day since then I have written something. Some days it’s been slight, other days it’s been a bit more substantial. I am tending toward the inane as I get my proverbial sea legs. But for now the momentum is back. It feels nice, like a good run.
(This is post #17 for the month, my best monthly output since July 24, 2014. I am both delighted and horrified by this.)