A posed photo version of the day in question…

 I have a friend who set aside a whole day just to write. She had put on her big-girl-pants for weeks to protect this one special day. She scheduled no calls, no other work, no distractions.

Just her and the ol’ laptop.

And, yeah. Nothin’.

…

I have another friend who did the whole self-care thing. She claimed time and space for the things she needed to feel good, and she did those things for herself.

For four whole days! She was rested. Her gut was calm and her skin was not blotchy.

Then she sat down to write.

And… NOTHING.

...

Then, there’s me.

Each week, I set aside 2 hours to write. I sat down for 2 hours yesterday morning.

Then I got up to go to the bathroom, and on my way back to my desk I had a totally different idea, which I immediately collected in a voice memo on my phone.

Because my 2 hours of writing time were up and I needed to go do something else.

Is this the "perfect" writing practice? Maybe I need to switch to 4 30-minute chunks per week instead?

I don't know. I’m not searching for a more perfect writing practice because I know the perfect practice will NOT produce the perfect writing.

Thank the gods for that, because as I write this it’s 5:33 pm on Tuesday and I’m standing at my kitchen counter writing this while my son sucks on a fruit pouch and watches PJ Masks.

The other one is on a grandma/grandson play date.

The husband is late but has ordered Thai delivery.

I am writing, not under the perfect writing conditions. I’m also not writing the perfect piece, but…

The two don’t go hand in hand anyway.

The perfect writing practice doesn’t produce the perfect piece of writing, unfortunately. I wish it did, because then all we’d have to decide is just to set aside one big day to write! Or four 30-minute sessions.

Or some other “perfect” formula. That one, sweet, sweet special formula.

...

Well, forget it, Little Miss Perfect.

The only thing I’ve found that improves my writing is iteration on an idea. Talking about the same idea in different ways, approaching it again and again from different angles, refining the point each time.

Iteration on an idea requires writing regularly.

But iteration does not require writing regularly under the “perfect” conditions.

And like I said, thank the gods for that.

M

PS: If you sit down to write, and you're totally dissatisfied with what comes out, you can always book a free coffee chat with me to talk it through.