In a fight between Time Wizards and Inspiration, the Time Wizards always win! In other words, I’ve found that when I regularly make time to write, I consistently make progress, and the more time I spend the more progress I make. Aka, putting the work in works! We are not slaves to some muse! We can forge our own destiny!

As they say on Writing Excuses, “Butt in chair, fingers on the keyboard.”

Sure, sometimes I’ll feel “inspired” and blow through even more words than usual, but that is the very rare exception. Controlling your schedule to ensure you are spending the time and putting the work in will always be more powerful than hoping for inspiration to strike and just writing then. The good news is that this is true even when I’m not feeling inspired.

More time = more words, and the ratio is fairly stable. This week was bad, but most of that was simply that I didn’t spend nearly as much time actually attempting to put words on the page as I did last week, which was awesome. In the long run, putting the work in will always get you the results you need, which means you don’t have to panic about writer’s block. I overcame writer’s block, and you can, too!

Your fate as a writer is not shackled to the fickle whims of some mythological muse, and neither is mine! You will succeed as long as you are putting the work in, getting the help you need, and learning from both your mistakes and the mistakes of others. As the saying goes, it does take some luck to succeed, but I find that the harder I work the luckier I get!

Have a great week, and Just Keep Writing!

Timothy Kuhn