Little things kind of reveal themselves to me in the (process of) writing. A lot of people think that magic happens when you write, and it does, but they think, “Well you must be struck by inspiration, this magic bolt hits you and then you just sit down and … it must just pour out of you.” Well no. First you work and then the magic happens, if you’re lucky. (Diana Gabaldon podcast Episode 3: The “Kernel Process”)
You have to write to find the words. I tell my high school students to “think with your pen, not your brain.” It’s an odd concept at first, but once the pen is moving (or the keyboard is clicking), the words tend to find their way onto the page (or screen). If you wait for the thunderclap of inspiration, you’ll never get the words. If you sit, ready to work, they flow by themselves. Perhaps there won’t be thousands of them, perhaps they won’t all be brilliant, but there will always be something that you can use, even if only as a jumping off point for something else.
Think with your pen, not your brain. That’s where the real magic is.
Shawn L. Bird 
Reblogged this on Shawn L. Bird and commented:
Think with your pen, not your brain.
Exactly 🙂
I try really hard to write every day. Or at least, I intend to try to write every day. It’s not always on the ‘novel in progress’ though.
Even I do, try to write everyday. Even if it is two lines 🙂
Yup. Excellent practise.
Ah, writer’s block….
Sorry, I can’t think of anything else to say…:op
Good advice, though.
Ha. I can’t say that’s ever an issue. There’s always something to write, though it may not be the project at hand! All April I planned to work on the 4th Grace Awakening novel, and instead, I wrote 25 poems. So. I’ll put out a poetry book in the next while. It all works out! lol
As the painter, Chuck Close, said: “Inspiration is for amateurs.”
It’s true. All the pros just sit down and ‘do,’ don’t they? 😉