Once we’ve embraced the idea of beginner’s mind and have opened ourselves to the limitless possibilities before us, it’s time to get down to the act of writing itself.
It’s time to begin. And sometimes, that’s the hardest part of the writer’s experience.
Sometimes, despite our best intentions and efforts, we freeze before the blank page or screen before us. Where to begin? How to start? How to conquer the tyranny of the blank page?
If you’re like me, you don’t love writing so much as having written. You love the final product. But you struggle putting in the work to get from the blank page or computer screen to the finished work.
Maybe you’re overcome by writer’s block, that sense that you just can’t get your words out. Or that you’re uninspired and have nothing to say. Or — again, if you’re like me — you let your impulsive, chatterbox monkey mind pull you away from the task of writing with thoughts of what you could or should be doing instead of writing.
It is at these times that we need the resolve to just write. Even if we feel like we have nothing to say.
Bukowski got it right
I love this Charles Bukowski quote that writer Jeff Goins uses in a piece about overcoming writer’s block:
Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.
Charles Bukowski
Bukowski got it right.
Nothing to write about? Then write about that and see where it takes you.
Just start writing.
If it helps, give this approach a try. It’s from Natalie Goldberg’s fine book about writing, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
Sit down right now. Give me this moment. Write whatever’s running through you. You might start with “this moment” and end up writing about the gardenia you wore at your wedding seven years ago. That’s fine. Don’t try to control it. Stay present with whatever comes up, and keep your hand moving.
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
How much should I write?
Once you start going with your writing, you may wonder how much you should write in one sitting? And should you measure your progress in words on the page or time spent on the effort? How can you know when your writing session is complete?
These are questions that nag at me daily. Am I writing enough?
I don’t know that there’s a satisfactory answer to these questions. But one thing that seems to work for most writers is consistency.
Some days I may write only a page in my journal, or less. Other days I may write four or five pages. And some days after my morning writing session is done, a thought will strike me and I’ll pick up the journal to record it out of the regular sequence of habit.
My entries may be telegraphic and pedestrian — notes about the weather, or what is on my agenda for the day ahead, or (often) about how I’m too busy to spend much time writing today. Too often, I succumb to the monkey-mind chatter about all the other things I need to get done, and so I give my writing short shrift.
I phone it in, you might say, just so I can check “write in the journal” off my to-do list. (This, I confess, was often my practice before retiring from my marketing/branding/public relations career in higher education at the end of 2023. Since then, I’ve allowed myself more time and latitude for journaling. Still, it’s amazing how many other distractions come may way, even as a retiree.)
Goals are good, in writing and in other areas of our life (fitness, for example, or practicing a musical instrument). Many of the most successful writers set writing goals, and many keep journals or diaries.
Goldberg, for example, has a goal of finishing one notebook a month. “Simply to fill it,” she writes. “That is the practice.” I don’t know how large her notebooks are, but to fill one a month, her ideal “is to write every day.”
“I say it is my ideal. I am careful not to pass judgment or create anxiety if I don’t do that. No one lives up to his ideal.”
No one lives up to his ideal. That is comforting.
How many words?
Another approach to the practice of writing is to set a goal of a certain number of words to write each day. That is the approach advocated in a new book by novelist Jami Attenberg called 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round.
Attenberg’s book grew out of an experiment she and another writer embarked on in 2018 to wrote 1,000 words a day for two weeks over the summer. They shared their idea on social media, thousands of other writers joined in, and soon the hashtag #1000WordsofSummer became a thing on social media (and still is).
The movement grew into a book, which was published earlier this month.
Like Goldberg’s notebook-a-month target, Attenberg’s 1,000-words-a-day goal is an ideal. It works for her, but may not fit everyone’s approach.
One thousand words a day: it feels logical and precise and orderly. But the creative life cycle is year-round, and it operates in ebbs and flows. Sometimes our process is quieter and more intimate, and sometimes we are productive and streamlined and the words flow noisily and easily. Summer is usually my most productive time in terms of generating new work and getting words down on the page. For you, it might be at a different time, or in multiple, shorter spurts throughout the year.
Jami Attenberg, 1000 Words
Looking at my journal entries over the past two years, I don’t think I’ve written a single 1,000-word entry. Getting 600 to 700 words written in a single sitting seems to be my best. So clearly, I have work to do if I’m going to shoot for 1,000 words. It’s an admirable goal. I might give it a shot.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have William Carlos Williams, the famous American poet who was also a children’s doctor and who, Goldberg notes, “wrote many of his poems on prescription pads in between office visits by his patients.”
What to write?
Austin Kleon, a writer and visual artist whose book Steal Like an Artist should be required reading for all writers, musicians, visual artists and other creatives, keeps several very visual journals going at once, each focused on a specific theme. His “year in notebooks” post on Instagram shows 2023’s editions — “logbook, pocket notebooks, commonplace diary, regular diaries” — stacked on top of previous year’s journals.
Then there’s John Steinbeck. While he was working on The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck also kept a journal in which he wrote every weekday about the “excruciating self-doubt” he felt while writing his masterpiece novel. Steinbeck “plows forward anyway,” writes The Marginalian‘s Maria Popova, “with equal parts gusto and grist, driven by the dogged determination to do his best with the gift he has despite his limitations. His daily journaling becomes a practice both redemptive and transcendent.”
In addition to the journal, Steinbeck also cranked out about 2,000 words per day on the novel-in-progress, Popova writes.
Pretty impressive. Also, pretty intimidating.
But we aren’t trying to compare ourselves to Steinbeck, right?
The most important thing
Whatever approach you take to your writing — whether you write 1,000 words, 100 words, or any number of words, whether you mix your writings with sketches or newspaper clippings, whether you keep a single catch-all journal or several types for different subjects or projects, however you do it — the most important thing to do, to defeat the tyranny of the blank page, is to pick up your pen and write.
Notes and links
- On her wonderful website The Marginalian, Maria Popova writes about the many notable writers who have kept journals and the benefits they discovered from journaling. She writes that the practice teaches us “how to be present with our own selves, bear witness to our experience, and fully inhabit our inner lives.
- John Steinbeck’s collection of journal entries, Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath, was published in 1990.
- Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
- Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.
- 10 ways to beat writer’s block.
Andy writes! 
I have that Natalie Goldberg book on my shelf, along with another one of hers, “Wild Mind,” which she politely signed a few decades ago when I went fan girl on her in the old Galisteo Newsstand in Santa Fe.
Very cool. I enjoy thumbing through “Writing Down the Bones” but have never read “Wild Mind.” I assume you would recommend it?
Well, I haven’t cracked open either Goldberg book in a looooooong time. Actually, I JUST opened Wild Mind and the binding broke. Now the book looks like those people in yoga who have really open hips. Wild Mind is full of “try this” exercises so it feels like a workbook. That might be a tad didactic and hortatory for you!
For almost 2 years now (effective March 2024), I start my work day with a 5-minute journaling session. Many times I find myself starting off my entry with “I have nothing to write about today,” and by the end of my 5 minutes, I’ve written about 250 words. Me from 5 minutes ago looks pretty ridiculous now, doesn’t he? Sometimes, I go past my 5 minutes because I have a lot to say, and other times, I find myself struggling to write for the entire 5 minutes. I’ve read a lot of back-and-forth of whether you should journal based on a certain word count or time limit. I’ve stuck with the 5-minute timer, but I may switch to a word count.
Also, thanks for the book suggestions. I recently finished Ann Handley’s “Everybody Writes” and am now reading “Save The Cat! Writes a Novel!” Looking for more writing books, so I’ll have to check some of those out.
Hi, Paul,
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your 5-minute rule. It sounds like it’s working well for you. Also, congratulations on your upcoming two-year journaling anniversary. Well done!
I enjoyed Ann Handley’s book (read the first edition, considering buying the updated version which came out in 2023). I’ll have to look into “Save the Cat!”
Really love this quote you shared, it’s true: “No one lives up to his ideal.” Or someone else’s for that matter. I write 1,000 words per hour, so that 1,000 per day sounds very achievable. But it sounded very daunting until I realized it was only for the summer. Making that sort of commitment for a space is one thing, doing it all year, or even every year, sounds like burnout. Since 2016 I’ve written two books (one in third draft form), a novella, and several short stories, but I don’t write every day. I do give myself a schedule and that’s important. I typically spend two shifts a week writing (during my first book it was Monday and Wednesday evenings). More recently it was Monday mornings and Friday evenings (after dinner for a few hours only). I hate math, but honestly doing the math helps. I tend to average about 2,000 words per chapter which is 2 hours of writing. When I wrote my first book, I’d sometimes spend four or so hours writing, which resulted in two chapters per session. Knowing math like this is helpful. Another thing about writing is that it isn’t all working with words (scribbling or typing). I spend a lot of time meditating, listening to music, or both, so I can sort out characters, plot points, etc. Plus research (mostly reading). I say that to remind that this counts as writing too. 1,000 words per day doesn’t account for all the other stuff.
Any rate. This post really got me thinking, thanks.
Also, I loved how Sylvia Plath devoted time to writing after her divorce. She would get up at 4am before the kids and write until it was time to get them up for the day. Her output during that time is amazing.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Nat! I agree that setting goals, even idealistic goals, can lead to burnout if we’re not careful. I also like what you wrote about writing being about more than “working with words.” In fact, your comments feed into a blog post I have planned for next week and, with your permission, I’d like to incorporate some of your thoughts in it (properly attributed, of course).
Sure. Use what resonates. Email me or tag me on social when you share. Will love to read it and not just because my words will be in it.