There’s No Excuse Not To Be Writing

Once a year, I’ll pick up a new book on writing to get my creativity flowing again and to see if I gain any new insights into the craft. While I gain some new tips and tricks, I will save you a ton of time and tell you most of the advice: You can’t become a good writer if you don’t write. The number one thing that will make you better at the thing..is doing the thing. It’s not surprising that this applies to almost all skills you want to improve.

The writing books are great, but they only show their true value once you consistently practice your writing. One of my favorite quotes by the great Louis L’Amour emphasizes this point perfectly.

“A writer’s brain is like a magician’s hat. If you’re going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in fire.”

Louis L’Amour

Reading the writing books is fine. Just make sure you are writing first.

The World Is Full of Ideas

Our world is an unlimited content source; you just have to slow down and look around. Today, however, it’s harder than ever to benefit from this because we live in a world of constant distraction. You carry a device with you at all times that constantly vies for your attention, with applications designed by some of the world’s most skilled engineers whose sole job is to keep you addicted.

You must find a way to free yourself from the resistance that wants you to fail and return to your phone to doom scroll your precious time away. I won’t go into too much detail on how to break a phone addiction because it’s different for everyone, but I will recommend Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

There are always interesting things happening around you. If you take the time to look around and absorb them, you will generate more ideas than ever. Just be ready to write them down before you lose them.

Your Thoughts Have Value

Think of all the books, articles, movies, documentaries, and podcasts you have consumed or interesting experiences in your life. These memories are sitting in your brain somewhere, and while the actual memory may be blurred or inaccurate, your brain most likely created an idea from it. Sometimes, you must allow yourself to sit with your thoughts to encourage these ideas to come to the forefront.

Unfortunately, this requires us to be bored, and as mentioned earlier, boredom has been almost eradicated from society. If you grew up before smartphones, you remember when standing in line, going on long drives, or walking somewhere, which allowed our minds to wander and gave us new ideas. This is an extremely valuable skill that is slowly disappearing, and if you can harness it, it can give you ideas for your writing.

Many great intellectual people in history credit long, undistracted walks as the solution to many writing struggles. Recently, I read Stephen King’s memoir “On Writing,” and he talks about figuring out the ending to The Stand and how he would go on long walks to work through ideas in his head. On one of these long walks, the idea came to him, and unfortunately, he wasn’t carrying anything to write with, so he had to sprint home before the idea left him. He finished the book several weeks later after almost giving up on it.

There are countless stories similar to these. Rockefeller’s long walks to the office and back gave him business strategies that led him to become an oil tycoon. Ralph Waldo Emerson went on long walks to come up with lecture ideas. Marcus Aurelius credited long walks to work through difficult decisions as the emperor of the most powerful nation in the world.

If one of the most prolific authors in recent memory and a great emperor who left a legacy that has lasted almost 2000 years benefited from their thoughts, then so can you.

You Don’t Need An Interesting Life To Be a Writer

Roland Allen’s book The Notebook focuses on the history of notebooks and their uses. In it, he discusses the fact that people who had interesting lives wrote less in their journals, and sailors who had nothing to do during their downtime during long voyages were the most prolific writers.

Perhaps it’s because the sailors had more free time, but that shows they also had time to be bored and think, which brought them ideas to write about. Many sailors created business strategies or elaborate plans for what they would do once they landed and were excited to get to work after the voyage.

I don’t want you to think you have nothing to say because you don’t live the most exciting life. We already have the most valuable tool for writing: our brain. Just give it the tools to do the work.

Don’t Become A Writer If You Aren’t Willing To Read

Reading books is the most important skill for becoming a better writer outside of writing. The more books you read, the more you will gain the ability to distinguish between good and bad writing and also learn new styles of writing. You can use this same skill set when editing your writing. As a bonus, reading is an incredible idea generator; combined with your thoughts, it can be the push that generates truly unique ideas or improvements on pre-existing ideas.

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

Stephen King

The best way to spend more time reading is to dedicate more of your leisure activities to reading. Replace circumstances where you get on your phone to pass the time and read a book instead. Earlier, I stated that technology was a crutch to writing, but if we are smart, it can become a tool, especially with reading.

Carrying a book with you is cumbersome, but now you can always have your books on your devices. Replacing social media apps with the Kindle app will increase your reading tremendously.

Don’t Become A Writer If You Aren’t Willing to Work Hard

This advice applies to any endeavor you want to improve in. What’s the point if you only give half an effort? You’re better off using those resources elsewhere because I can guarantee that mediocre effort in writing will never produce great results.

“But if you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well—settle back into competency and be grateful you have even that much to fall back on.”

Stephen King

Be ready to put in the hard work. Perhaps writing isn’t for you if it doesn’t feel worth it. You still need to find what you are passionate about. Nothing is wrong with that, but if you are truly passionate about something, it won’t always feel like work, and when it does, you can push past it.

Learn to Read and Write in Small Spurts

Nothing beats long, undistracted reading and writing sessions. But let’s be real: we don’t live in a perfect world, and life can make it feel like we will never find the time to become a writer. This is when you need to be strategic and learn to read and write in small spurts. As stated earlier, technology is a huge help with this. Do some writing on the notes app on your phone during breaks throughout the day. Listen to audiobooks on your commute. Nothing beats dedicating time to your craft, but you need to be able to supplement it with tools when life gets in the way.

One of my favorite anecdotes is the author Louis L’Amour talking about how he would manage to read more.

“Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms were made for books—of course! But so are theater lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone’s favorite, the john.”

Louis L’Amour

I didn’t want to say it myself, but if L’Amour did, so can I. Stop bringing your phone to the bathroom and bring a book instead! Just don’t loan that book to your friend when you’re done.

If All Else Fails…

If all else fails and you still have nothing to write about after applying all these tips, then write about having nothing to write about. You will be surprised to find that you end up writing about something.

Writing is hard, but the rewards are immense. I encourage you to keep pushing forward!

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Book Ponder focuses on the incredible power of reading, and even though stand-alone articles like these are unique ideas, I like to credit any books that inspired or gave me the resources for the idea.