Sometimes it’s all inspiration.

Sometimes it’s all perspiration.

Writing experiences vary from day to day. One day the words flow poetically off the keys like I have discovered the key to writing the world’s next epics. The next day, the words drip like my leaky faucet.

But here are a couple of takeaways that I’ve gleamed.

1) On days when its all inspiration, be thankful and write for as long as you can.

2) On days when it’s all perspiration, be thankful and write for as long as you can.

Hmmm. Those sounded somewhat the same, but to tell you the truth, they are.

Most writing is done in the trenches, digging one sentence after another with a half-broken shovel and a comrade who is thoroughly distracting. It might be that a person near you turns on some annoying music which throws off your concentration. It might be that your brain is functioning on not enough sleep. It might be that your plot suddenly seems completely silly and unrealistic. It might mean that all you can think of is a bunch of “there was” and a repetition of then, and then, and then, and then.  It might be a hundred other things which through off your concentration, but my advice is to write through it.

It’s not necessary to be “inspired” for every writing session. Continue to put down word after word. Continue to use the same hackneyed vocabulary. You can always improve it a later. One thing that you can never do is this: you can’t ever improve writing that you haven’t written.

You don’t have to like your writing in order for it to be useful. I never quite got the idea of a writer writing five pages one day and then coming back to it the next only to deep-six it in the trash to start all over again. I use most everything of what I write, but the final result may be very different from the original draft.

So keep at it. Even if you feel uninspired.

Write. Even if you don’t have any ideas.

Continue.

Then come back to it the next day and see what is salvageable and move on.

A poorly worded sentence from a bad writing session may just lead to inspiring writing the next day.

Write like a workman. Steady. Slow. Determined. Thorough. Dependable.

It will pay off.