[marginalia_nu]

I've found the quality of my inputs to be extremely important if I want to sustain any sort of writing habit. It's hard for me to write frequently if I'm not reading frequently. It almost has to be books, not necessarily related to the sort of things I write, but it's like the act of reading plants seeds for new thoughts and ideas that eventually grow and form into text.

[quanticle]

Ryan Holiday talks about this a bit in "Success Is A Lagging Indicator" [1]. The way he puts it, "writers block" doesn't exist. What people call writer's block is a symptom of not having done enough preparation work. It means the writer hasn't researched or structured their ideas to enable the writing process to occur smoothly. I tend to agree, but I would add that there is an "analysis paralysis" failure mode where you fall in a trap of constantly revising the outline instead of getting the words on the page and refining from there.

[1]: https://ryanholiday.net/all-success-is-a-lagging-indicator/

[marginalia_nu]

I prefer an agricultural metaphor. I think interesting ideas are planted and nurtured rather than manufactured. If you seeds for interesting ideas by engaging with the thoughts of others (may be through talking or reading), make sure to sleep well and take care of your body, then you'll think interesting thoughts and if you enjoy writing like I do, most likely be inspired to write about them.

But as Ryan is suggesting, having things to write about is a side-effect or consequence of minding your "garden" (to avoid confusion, this is not a nod to Candide).

[solarkraft]

I fall into that trap a lot. I have stuff to say, but it can be approached in so many ways and I find it hard to choose one.

Any tips?

One thing I guess works is "just blurt it out spontaneously". Ryan Holiday also has a motivating line on that (https://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-thats-mis...):

> No one ever reads something and says, “Well, I got absolutely nothing out of this and have no idea what any of this means but it sure is technically beautiful!” But they say the opposite all the time, they say “Goddamn, that’s good” to things with typos, poor grammar and simple diction

[quanticle]

Steve Jobs put it more succinctly: "Real artists ship". At some point you have be very honest and ask yourself, "Do I really need to revise my outline once again before I start writing?"