"Writing is Easy"

According to Problogger guest writer Greg McFarlane, writing is easy, editing is hard.
"The process of writing – getting words down on the page – is mindlessly simple. Transcribe everything you say and/or think and eventually you’ll have something down on the screen in front of you."

While he goes on to talk about why editing is important, which it is, I liked what he had to say.
"Any blogger who wants to can bang out a 1000-word post a day. "

Sometimes I stare at the screen unable to get anything down. But the above is true. Just typing these words right now... is writing. Why do I get stuck on the writing part?

I keep trying to remind myself that writing anything down is better than writing nothing down. Sure, you don't want meaningless drivel, nonsensical sentences. I'm certainly not suggesting that.

When you are writing a novel however, generally you have some idea what you want to be occurring. So, even if you literally write something exceptionally banal, at least it's something.

Sometimes I get so caught up in one word, one sentence, that I can't seem to move forward at all. I spend  20 minutes trying to write and can't seem to come up with anything. Then I take a break. Then I do something else. Then I think about writing, remember how I'm stuck and proceed to do something else again. I let the "stuck"make me unable to move forward.

But I don't literally have a wall in front of me. It's more like a section of a wall that I can step around and come back to with a sledgehammer. I forget that.

The rest of the article goes on to explain more about writing, specifically for blogs but the content is still fitting.

Problogger: Writing is Easy; Editing is Hard.