I just started reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
“It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.” — Steven Pressfield.
This was written for me.
Sometimes I go out with my camera and have no idea what I’ll find or what images I’ll get. I have a general idea based on the light and the weather conditions. But overall, I just wing it. I simply want to capture something, and sometimes it’s good to be surprised when I find out exactly what that is.
Not every image I capture comes from this process. And not every image I take sees the light of day. But the mindset of heading out to search for whatever is there is where some of my favorite images come from.
When I am writing for Substack, it’s not the same.
I don’t have the same sense of adventure. I need to feel sure of my topic and the point I’m trying to make. I need to assure myself the whole concept makes sense before I even start writing.
Often that means I don’t get past a few handwritten notes scratched in a notebook, or a single sentence typed in my list of ideas in Notion.
Pressfield would call that Resistance.
I need to figure out how to bring the same mindset to my writing as I do to my photography.
Being unsure about a topic until I just start writing about it is acceptable.
Maybe it’s as simple as being OK with starting before I know the ending.
Ironically, this post may be the closest I've come to "just starting" to write without knowing for sure where I was going.
What is your process? How do you get going when you don’t have a solid idea?
✅ Where to Find Me
You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography
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More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.