Sitting down is the hardest part of writing

Finally, here I am. Hands on the keyboard, fingers seem to be moving. Good, I’m making progress.

Why is it so fucking hard to just sit down and... write?

I've sketched outlines in my head, thought about writing, talked about writing. But not actually done much of it. I've come up with dozens of catchy titles that beg to be written. So much that I find myself terribly intimidated by my own headlines. Will they live up to their promise?

Probably not.

Well, definitely not if I never sit down and write them.

Contrary to the cliché, I haven't been staring at a blank page while pulling my hair out. I've been doing just about anything to avoid the apparently simple act of sitting down and writing (while my hair naturally falls on its own).

Ideas, unlike wine, don't age well in storage. They morph and decompose faster than you can realize. They turn sour. What is even worse, they disappear without leaving a trace. For good and bad, my first post on this blog is not any of those grand titles that I've put on a pedestal and found incredibly creative ways to avoid. The first post is about the easiest part of the writing process that most of us don't even get to:

SIT DOWN!

Now, René, don’t overthink it.

Open up a text editor. Yes, any of them will do.

No, no, stop. It's not the time to set up a connected node structure in Obsidian. Wait, no. You don't need to configure your Substack newsletter and experiment with all the settings yet. Really? Do you think the font choice in Google Docs will make a difference?

START WRITING!

Keep typing, keep typing. Anything that comes to mind. Don't worry, you can edit later. Yes, I swear you can edit later. As many times as you want. Just keep going, keep going.

Doesn't it feel good to articulate your thoughts? There’s something magical about seeing your ideas stare back at you from the screen.

Writing is not that hard once you are actually sitting down.

Hey, I might even have a first blog post right here.