The Easiest Thing

I’m going to tell you, right here and now, the easiest thing about writing. It also applies to all other forms of creativity, and a lot of other things to boot, but I am going to speak of it in terms of writing because that’s what I do. Just know that, yes, I know it also applies to your thing as well.

The easiest thing to do is…

Are you ready?

The easiest thing to do is to not write.

Even if it is a joy for you, in those wonderful moments when you look forward to creating and building and finding a groove. On the hard days, the simple days, the lazy, and gloomy days this remains true.

The easiest thing to do is to not write.

And I say this as someone who, for me and my brain, if I go too long (where “too long” is not a fixed point but something my brain makes up according to its own rules without asking every time) without writing, without creating, my brain starts to reject other stories. I have trouble focusing to watch an episode of TV, or a movie, or to read a book or a comic. My brain is so annoyed that I am not generating stories myself that it fights against me being able to ingest someone else’s.

Even then, I have to tell you. Even then the easiest thing to do is to not write.

If you don’t write then you can’t fuck it up. If you don’t write then you can’t have a bad writing day. You can’t stumble, or ruin things. You can’t create something that isn’t as perfect as it is in your head. All of those bad things simply go away if you don’t do it in the first place.

Your brain knows this. It revels in it, deep in the hidden corners. It wants to protect you, after all, and your brain knows this is the simplest way.

It’s also, of course, the worst and most destructive way, but since when have human brains cared about that end, in the lizard section? That’s not on the shelves for stuff like this.

You can’t stop it. You can not undo it, or avoid it entirely. The fact that the easiest thing to do is to not write will never be untrue.

The fact that the easiest thing to do is not write will also never be the good answer, the right answer, or the one you want to embrace.

All of this can, and is, true.

So we write, we create, and we push forward regardless. Even on the joyful days when you look forward to the work and the push, you fight the urge to simply not, consciously or unconsciously.

You write. You write more. You create. You do the work.

And then you do more of it.

Because the easiest thing isn’t the right or best thing.

And still it sits there, nibbling. Always and forever.

Which is also not to say that there are times you shouldn’t listen and take time off, be gentle with yourself, and care for yourself by not writing. Or course you need to. There’s balance to all things in the world, including this.

But…

It will be the easiest tomorrow, too. It will still be the easiest even when it shouldn’t be the choice you make.

Again there is nothing you can do to make it go away. You learn, instead, to look it in the eye and make a conscious choice, each and every time. You pick the fight. You choose the arena. You decide, and you cloak yourself in the power of the choice, every time you make it.

Over time that grows strength and along with it the ability to make the choice faster and cleaner. On the good days and the bad. That same strength also lets you see when you throw the fight and take the easy road. But it makes it your choice, not simply caving to the easy road.

And you’ll do it again. And again. And again.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that doing it makes you a fucking rockstar.

You.

Winning a universal fight each and every time you commit an act of creation. Stunning. World bending. You champion.

Go forth. Fight. Win.