When “writing is the most irksome thing in the world”…
The discipline academic writers need in order to keep those fingers on the keyboard can be hard to learn, especially when we really don’t know what we want or need to say. But the only way to get the work done is to plug away—even when Facebook, friends, and French fries are much more compelling than the task in front of us. While some of our distractions are new, the problem we face is old. Back in 1856, Harvard professor Edward T. Channing delivered a lecture called “A Writer’s Habits,” in which he argued that
“….self-control must be a principle and a habit, that shall be equal to any temptation or opposition, and stand faithfully by him when writing is the most irksome thing in the world, when the body is exhausted and the mind listless and vacant. It will never do to put off such work as his till it invites him. It is a miserable mistake that success in original composition is hopeless unless he sets about it with all his heart, and that, when the spirit is reluctant, he may at least insist upon having a subject which is full of promise and invitation” (208).
The take-away? Don’t wait for inspiration. Sit down and just start writing.
