"you can't edit a blank page"

Those of you who know me personally know that the past year and a half of my life has been devoted to missionary work, and as a result I haven't made much progress in my writing. Of course, signing up for an eighteen-month mission I knew that I was giving that up temporarily, but it's been more difficult to jump back into the writer's chair than I anticipated.

Why is that? There are of course a million reasons, but each one is just another excuse to take the place of the last one that wasn't credible. In the end, it's because I haven't started.

Once you start typing, you're going to write something.

Sometimes I find myself so intimidated to start, pushing myself to get everything perfect the first time, and forgetting that that's entirely impossible. Luckily, this week I was reminded of that fact when listening to the most recent episode of the podcast, The Writer Files, where they quoted Jodi Picoult in saying, "You can't edit a blank page."

Personal takeaway? Just WRITE, and make a plan for WHEN. That doesn't mean it has to be every day - the plan can be to give yourself a writing weekend once or twice a month. But if you don't take the time to write, you can't possibly grow as a writer.

So from now on - I'm setting aside every other weekend as a writing weekend!

What's your plan?

♥tg