"an hour before the thunderstorm" by devi laskar

There are writers who talk about writing what you know and there are other writers who talk about writing what you don’t know about what you know and there even more writers who talk about survival and forgiveness and revenge and writing about what you know about those subjects as you personally relate to them.

I don’t know too much about all that, but what I do know is that the best jump-start to writing is the act of sitting down and actually writing. Stressing about every detail of something that has yet to be committed to paper is a waste of time. First, get out a rough draft, then fret.

Here’s what you have to remember: everything.

Here’s what to forget: nothing.

There is so much distance between the previous pair of statements and entire books can be and have been written in that space. Writing can be precarious and exhilarating or an act of defiance or an act of love, but it’s up to the writer to make it so, and to practice.

What are you doing for yourself today to further your writing?

Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, an M.A. in South Asian Studies from the University of Illinois, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan, is working on a couple of novels and has 31 days to go before she finishes the first year of her art-a-day challenge.