Typing Without Fear

In the latest Vlogbrothers video, John Green said this fantastic line about writing:

"Writing does, at least for me, require quite a lot of concentration.  And to concentrate you must be prepared to face the terrifying spectre of boredom without fear."

Hearing this made my night.  Most writers love talking about writing more than anything else, and to hear them talk about it, writing should be some kind of transcendental experience.  So when I sit down to write and have a hard time getting out even a few words before hitting Facebook or taking a sudden interest in cleaning out my closet, I can't help feeling like maybe I'm doing it wrong.

So hearing a successful published author so succinctly describe the lonely drudgery that is the actual action of writing was a great comfort to me.  In theory, writing should be exciting.  As writers, we can create worlds and people and plots.  But the creativity part can only get you so far before you have to actually sit down and start the work part.

But if you're lucky, sometimes the work part pays off and you get to make videos and write in Amsterdam.  So maybe it's not so bad.