Writing isn’t just sitting down and typing the words. Writing is pretty much everything you do. It’s that moment in the shower when a character backstory pops into your head. It’s sketching a map late at night, it’s lying down in your bed and thinking hard about what’s gonna happen in the next chapter. It’s hours long research, looking up facts about medieval horse care. Forgetting to eat or pee because you’re too much in the story. It’s reading too. It’s living. Even not writing counts as writing. Every experience in your life becomes knowledge and inspiration that you’ll use in your work.
So I’m sick and tired of reading all these negative posts where writers try to force themselves to sit and type a certain number of words in order to feel good about themselves. Relax. Sometimes you need a break, and that break will be the reason you write twice as many pages next time. Go out for a coffee, or visit a bookstore to stare at pretty covers. Sit in a park. There are so many ideas out there in the world waiting for you, and you won’t discover them by sitting in front of a laptop and being angry at a blank page.
(ps. This is as much of a reminder for myself as it is for you)