The one step you have to take as a writer in 2023
For 2023, I’m resolving to lose weight for the first two weeks of the year.
I’m only half joking.
If history is prophecy, my best intentions for losing weight every new year lose steam within a few weeks.
A brutal Inc. headline says I’m not alone: “Studies Shows 91 Percent of Us Won’t Achieve Our New Year’s Resolutions.”
What does this have to do with writing better?
As Annie Dillard famously wrote, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.”
If you want to have a writer’s life you need to have writer’s days.
Do you?
Richard Bach wrote that “a professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.”
I wrote my first book to prove to myself that I could be a professional writer. Once the allure of my thesis wore off, my primary motivation to write 1,200 words per day to get to 50,000 words total was to show myself that I could achieve that goal.
And just as Steven Pressfield experienced in writing his first book, attaining that goal unlocked something within me. Future books were still work, but their daunting aspect relented.
I have to imagine the same could be said of marathoners: finishing the first one unlocks your potential to run many more. And you likely want to run many more.
Here’s the truth that took me a long time to understand and even longer to put into practice: a writer writes even when the motivation or inspiration isn’t there.
That’s the essential point of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, an annual must-read for any writer. It’s short but so powerful for writers who feel stifled.
So what now?
How can we become the 9 percent who do achieve our New Year’s resolutions (insofar as they’re writing related)?
James Clear has a good suggestion:
I knew I needed to write more and on a consistent basis so I relaunched this weekly newsletter. It provides me both an outlet to connect with other nonfiction authors and a weekly task to just write something. I gave no thought to the launch date. (Who launches two weeks from the end of the year?)
I just knew I needed to start.
What do you need to start?
Soon—and maybe even right now—write down your writing goals for 2023. Don’t get granular; just get them down.
Review your list, then start.
Do something today that gets you one foot closer to your goals.
Then do something tomorrow that takes another step.
Then your writing days will become your writing life.
Pressfield writes, “Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don't do it.”
In other words: just start.
P.S. What are your writing goals for the coming year? Reply to this email if you’d like to share.
Housekeeping
If you’re interested in such things, I compiled my top 10 TV shows from 2022.
No additional curated content this week. I’ve been traveling and it’s been a slow week on the internet.
Let’s connect on Twitter (while we still can).
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