If you are struggling to find time to write, it may be because you aren’t clear on why you want to write.

I wrote what wanted to be written, putting it on the page without judgment. I learned that editing was a separate process that I could engage with once I had done the deep work and surfaced the truth of what needed to be said. I abandoned all attempts to force my idea too soon, instead giving it time to be floaty and undefined for a while before ge

To write in service of the writing, not the ego, is a radical act. What if we gathered up all the energy we usually spend worrying about what other people think and poured it into our writing? What if we really lived our lives, moment to moment, and wrote about that?

be enough for now? When we do this we realize that everything we need is already here. We do not need any kind of external validation or material success in order to write, or keep writing. When we focus on writing as a sacred act, we stop trying to control what happens. A writing life stops being something we dream about and becomes something we a

It is in letting go of most of our words that we get to the few that really matter.

I like writing at my desk, but I don’t make it a condition of writing. I like lighting a candle first, but I don’t make that a condition of writing. I like the rhythm of showing up early before the day begins, but I don’t make that a condition of writing either. While routine and a dedicated writing space can encourage you to write, there is value

When you wake in the night and the world is still, pay attention. When the wind shows its presence by rustling leaves, pay attention. When you take a slow deep breath and feel the beating of your own heart, pay attention. These quiet moments are secret ways in.

When embarking on a great project, start where you are with something small. JAPANESE PROVERB

I used to lodge with a laid-back Japanese man whose favorite phrase was 気にしないで (ki ni shinaide), which means “Don’t worry about it.” It only recently struck me that the literal translation of this is “Don’t turn it into energy.” Yet this is often exactly what we do with worries. We can get so fixated on a fear-based thought that we turn it into stu