Keep Going

Writing’s so easy, right? There’s a quote by Hemingway: There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. And who wants to go through the pain and suffering that comes with opening a vein on a daily basis?
It’s even harder when things aren’t going well. When the radio is silent, and when it does send a signal, the news isn’t good. Then that negative voice in the back of your head starts asking, what’s the point of doing all that damage to yourself. What’s the point in spilling all that blood?
But to extend the metaphor, that’s the great thing about the stuff that runs through our veins. We’re always making more of it. Spill a pint, and a few weeks later, your body has replaced it.
So why not bleed? Why not spill your ideas and feelings and hopes all over your keyboard. It’s not as though you’re going to run out.
During lockdown and quarantine, and long periods of radio silence, I derived a lot of comfort from Austin Kleon’s book Keep Going. It’s a little, square book, only a couple of hundred pages long, and the pages are pretty small. Also, on some of the pages, the writing is pretty big. Sometimes there are pictures! What I’m trying to say is, this is not a heavy lift of a book. And it has some very helpful stuff in it. One of the most helpful things for me has been just to keep the thing on my desk, so that my eye falls on the title on the spine several times a day. Keep going. It’s the only way.