This is how it works: You’ve always wanted to be a writer, but instead you decide you should become a health care worker. You go to school for four years. You get a degree in social work. You are at your first day of your new job, listening to an orientation, and you realize you really did want to be a writer. You quit your job, go to the library

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I don’t mind starting over because it makes me feel like I’m getting closer to the truest expression of myself. In the same way, I don’t mind invisible effort because that’s how I know I exist apart from performance. It’s a blessing that every time I write, I grasp, as fresh and dewy as the first time I met you: the beauty, burden, bliss of... See more

So don’t think of it as starting over. Think of it as beginning again. Go back to chapter one—literally!—and become an amateur. Look for something new to learn, and when you find it, dedicate yourself to learning it out in the open. Document your progress and share as you go so that others can learn along with you. Show your work, and when the

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A stonemason doesn't start with perfectly uniform, factory-made bricks. Instead, they wander the fields, collecting stones of different shapes and sizes over days, weeks, or even months. Only when they have gathered enough diverse materials do they begin piecing them together into something beautiful and strong.

This is exactly how great writing... See more