How to start writing | Part I

On Writing: When you find the thing that lights a fire in your soul, fight for it

This is a piece I wrote to answer one of the questions that came in from the summer’s Ask Me Anything. This is part one of two. Here is the question that was asked by Tyler: 

As an aspiring writer, where the hell do you start? Would love to hear all of your struggles and successes, however far you'd like to expound upon them.

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Make the decision.

I could tell you that the way you start writing, the only way, is to just sit down and do it. Just get your ass in the chair. And it’s true. If you don’t sit down to write, the writing will never get done. But first, you have to decide to write. That is the first step. Make the decision. Hold the space to write. Keep the time sacred.

Are you scared? That’s okay. So am I. Fear, doubt, self-loathing—they all show up in the creative process. Get comfortable with them. Shake their hands. Say, I see you. Then do it anyway.

“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

I am bombarded by fear almost every time I sit down to write. I can hear a voice say, you’re a hack, you’re a hack, you’re a hack. It’s still hard for me to call myself a writer even though that is what and who I am at my core. When people ask, “What do you do?” I say all the other things I do and am first—a mother, a business owner, a reader, a damn good dog mom—until I can work up the courage to get to the thing I really want to say, which is, I am a writer.