Every so often, the best ideas are given birth to when least expected.
You stay up for a good long while, trying to adopt every possible method you can muster up from the most nourished section of your gray matter—all in an effort to come up with a masterpiece of the day. Then, having realized the lack of progress as time zooms past you, you begin to trim off what you consider an excessive fat of your expectations, thinking, If I could at least set down something passable, a tad readable, just for tonight, I’d be a happy man before I proceed to hit the sack. But even then, nothing fairly good comes forth from the repository of your imagination. After striving for all you’re worth, you end up giving up and going to bed as an unfulfilled man—at least, for that night.
Writing is hard. Great writing is absolutely daunting. No doubt about that. However, knowing the things to do to keep the machine running—and spewing out terrific products in the process—holds the mastery over everything else.
Regardless of where you stand in relation to the issue, writing is a job. And like any other jobs, having the ability to hold it down for as long as your interest lives is of paramount importance. It’s a chief ingredient in the recipe for success. In other words, keep writing, even when you’re having an off day. Don’t stop because you think your creations are horrible—and maybe they indeed are—or that you have the sturdiest writer’s block in the whole wide world. Just keep writing. You don’t have to go to bed unfulfilled.
This doesn’t, in any way, translate into you writing garbage. On the contrary, it means you keep hacking at the huge slab of block standing in the way of your creative prowess until you can see clear enough to produce that which is not garbage but sublime.
It’s like reaping what you’ve sown. The good stuff you couldn’t create before heading to sleep last night might just be waiting for you up there the following morning, when you least expect it. You’ve invested a load of time and persistence. Wait for the dividends. And while you’re at it, make some more investment.
