Why you find sitting down to write hard, and how to make it easier

Mastery Den, Saturday Edition, 4.5-min read.

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I'm in the middle of writing my eighth book and I still don't always find it easy for the words to flow.

I can get lost staring at a blinking cursor and start incessantly sighing. I think about how hard writing is and how this project feels overwhelming.

Writing is an intellectual activity, for a large part —and requires you to transfer your thoughts to paper, making them sound interesting in the process.

It's not always easy to jump into this state.

We also get uncomfortable around uncertainty. We don't know what to write, but we also fear making a mistake and looking bad. It's our need to write something good that ironically stalls us.

These things are all holding me back from tapping away at keys.

But then I got present, and I remembered all the things that had helped me to loosen up over the years.

Here are some ideas:

Meditate for a few minutes before.

Sit somewhere free of distractions and let your observational self rise to the fore.

Follow your breath, ease your muscles, and observe your sensations. Find bliss in your erupting and cascading emotional spectrum.

You're prepping the mind and body for creativity.

After such a mindful session, you'll be less uptight and more hopeful, and you may find yourself brimming with fresh ideas.

Get your body loose and in tune.

You don't want to coincide your writing session with a crash after some heavy, sugary food.

Ideally, write as a follow-up to some outdoor movement, where you get the blood flowing and oxygen to the brain.

Stretching, offensive dancing to German techno, jumping jacks, and some yoga are great, too.

Do a brain dump.

I've often found my frustrations and doubts about my life get in the way of easing into a creative session.

I open a notebook and spew it all on the page when I am pregnant with doubt.

I'll write down my worries rather than keep them locked in my ivory fortress.

Journaling like this sets the tone for creative flexibility and clears your mind for more energising ideas.

Write first about what is on your mind.

Many of us sit down to write and wonder why we're quickly bored out of our skulls. 

We're writing stuff we feel we should write, or we attempt to add to something you began writing when you were more excited about that idea. But that idea is now gone. You can return to it.

For now, write about what's been keeping you staring at the ceiling in bed.

These thoughts are close at hand and ripe like plums.

Freewrite like a reclusive maniac.

Free writing is a beautiful tool that few writers use.

Instead of staring blankly at your page or procrastinating for the eleventh time, write everything that comes to mind.

Abuse your document with a splurge of nonsensical considerations and otherwise intelligent observations.

Just let that shit flow out. After a time you may find your ideas begin to consolidate. 

Your ideas are no longer the scrawlings of a madman but the seeds of something special.

Read a book.

In a world filled to the hilt with shiny, dopamine-firing distractions, I view reading books as a middle-ground activity that isn't quite fully passive. 

It's creative because you need to actively transfer words into visions. And this is a great half-way house between doing nothing and writing.

Read and absorb someone else's experiences and concerns for a while.

You'll find yourself quickly inspired and ready to contribute.

Write for five minutes.

Most of our resistance is rooted to a feeling of overwhelm. 

Overwhelm isn't something out there in the world.

It's self-created through the power of thought. We envision the largeness of a task and we're thrown off. You needn't take on this burden. Make your next step easy, as every step should be.

Your mission as of right now is to write for five minutes.

Nothing more. Start there. Time it.

Draw a spider diagram.

You don't need to think linearly all the time.

Maybe you suck at writing because you're thinking in one dimension.

Get a piece of paper and several colouring pencils and start mapping out your ideas from above.

Now you're a dastardly clever crow with a secret advantage:

You see how your ideas connect, and you can form new relationships with ideas that were previously too shy to meet.

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Buy Alex’s book, ‘The Art of Self Respect: Twenty-five subtle habits for cultivating deep self-respect and attracting the respect of others.’

Here is Alex’s latest book, ‘Creatively Jacked: 43 badass motivation ideas for ambitious creators, today.