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I read an online post on LinkedIn and felt inclined to reply.

What’s difficult about writing is… to start writing

by Loic Le Meur, Entrepreneur. Starting Leade.rs

I have always enjoyed writing. I launched this newsletter promising a newsletter every week and it’s really been every two weeks in average.

I am trying to understand why I actually don’t write as often as I should.

The pressure of quality.

When I started writing this newsletter I had no subscribers then it started growing. I would write free of much pressure. Now it’s about 13,000 reading it. When I write I think too much about how many people read it and I get a significant pressure. I have decided to not care about this again and write more often.

I forget about it.

It’s really easy to be caught on something else like… building a startup. I have to take the time. I have to think about it. It’s not so natural.

I have nothing to say.

This is rare. I honestly very rarely have nothing to say. It’s more that I have too much to say but not enough smart things to say. Or not enough things I think are smart enough to be worth an intrusion in your inbox.

I don’t write down a simple idea to share.

I get ideas all day long and often think “this could be a newsletter”. Then I lose them. I am trying to write immediately the idea each time it comes so I can come back to it.

I don’t feel like writing.

That’s often. I could be paragliding instead, for example. I don’t know why my brain makes it feel so difficult sometimes. Then I see what Seth Godin does. He writes a few lines every day on his blog that turns into a newsletter. A very inspiring idea can be expressed in just a few lines.

Here is a tip to write more.

I have been doing morning pages regularly for a few years. The way I write them is a direct flow of ideas coming to my mind. I write them without any criteria of quality, they just get recorded as they show up. It’s a great exercise and often gives me ideas to write about later. I would say it’s the best way to find a good idea to write about. Just write whatever comes to your mind then read it again, there is likely an idea “worth sharing” in it.

What do you think I should write about? Hit reply and tell me.

I will write about it in the next newsletters.

P.S. We have two upcoming events in San Francisco, one on “Reinventing Health” on October 4th and the second on “Mindfulness and meditation” on November 4th in case you are interested.

Why not start writing more yourself too?

Loic

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Mr. Le Meur,   

I read your piece and agree with some of your points. For I had a similar problem in my collegiate writing courses and days: one of the hardest problems with writing is beginning the process, particularly if it's done from scratch. 

Creating an idea, one that is entirely original, is often the biggest dilemma because only YOU, the writer, will know HOW you (will) want to say what is taking place in your mind. No one else can tell you what to put on paper; that is part of the beauty of creating, though.  

That being said, my mind is constantly in this imaginary-like "dream land" mode that ideas may come to me from almost any given daily situation with every day people I encounter here and there. It might take me a few seconds to conjure the idea(s) with the character-like people and envision what I want to happen to them. The trick, for me at least, is putting down that idea on paper or the screen exactly how I want it to sound so my mind pictures what is & was "supposed" to be there.   

Because I've written for nearly 20 years now (since my middle school days) and have enjoyable memories of those years, actually writing out the stuff is not tedious. That handles itself.   

It's the editing and striving for clarity that smacks me in the face. Because that is where the knit-picky part takes place. Furthermore, because my mind has been programmed to work faster than my hands can type or muscles move the pen, I often find myself writing and editing simultaneously.  

Writing from purity must come first. Then editing will shape the piece. It takes patience and diligence. But I force myself to separate the stages because of the feeling of reading something I wrote and feeling good at it...quality, as you eloquently mentioned.  

I make it a point to write daily, regardless of the length, time, idea or prompt. Every day, something. I force myself if I have to.  

Because, according to an introduction to Stephen King's Night Shift by John D. MacDonald, "If you want to write, you write...Because that is the way it's done. Because there is no other way to do it. Not one other way..." (ix-x). And because my mind finds a certain relaxation from it, I force myself to relax, put on some soothing music or whatever, or let the words flow however they shall.   

I might adapt my style and pick-and-pull certain words for certain topics, but I just let ideas flow. If I feel they are good ones, I'll make note of them and continue with them later.   

I have a number of story-like ideas in "conception, 1-2 month old" stage that need development. But, again, the beginning concept is there. Then I might let my mind do the work and tell me where that concept is supposed to go from there.  

So, let's keep on letting the words flow like the white water rapids in the great Mississippi and something grand with come from them.   

Regardless of the genre or style, let the Mississippi form and flow. You might find your Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn paddling away on the waters and give you something you never knew you had.

Author's Note

What do you think of the ideas from either one? How do they compare, in what ways they might?