A common problem we writers have is how to get started. We have a rough vision of what we want to create, but we’re afraid to take that first step.

What if we go in the wrong direction? What if we discover we aren’t really talented? What if someone thinks it’s no good? What if this whole thing was a giant mistake?

When we’re wrestling with the blank page, our minds can go in all sorts of negative directions. Here’s a solution: just get started. The famous composer Leonard Bernstein said, “You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something, perhaps something silly. It simply doesn’t matter what . . . In five or ten minutes the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.”

I have found that to be true. You just have to get started. You just have to get moving and write something. Something, anything! Just put some words down. You have to plug in the machine before it’s going to produce anything.

After all, as Nora Roberts said, “You can fix anything but a blank page.” Even if what you write is pretty rough, you can always revise, update, and edit. But you can’t edit a blank page. So, get moving.

Daily Question: Are you willing to just start writing and let it be rough in order to get yourself moving?