In this motivational talk, the speaker shares anecdotes about writers who have delayed their projects— a 58‑year‑old who feels it’s “now or never,” a retired man still stuck on chapter one, and a writer who repeats the same yearly goal without progress. The core argument is that waiting for a perfect, mess‑free moment never works; life will always be messy. The speaker urges writers to stop hoping for a magical future and instead learn to write consistently within their current, imperfect circumstances. By building habits that survive life’s ups and downs, writers can make their craft a regular part of their lives rather than a postponed dream.
Chapters
One of the writers I spoke with is 58 years old. She's been writing for 40 years and she told me, "It's now or never time for me." Another writer, he retired 2 years ago convinced he'd finally write his novel. 2 years later, he's still on chapter 1. So when is the right time? I talk to writers day in and day out who tell me the timing isn't right. And for many of them, maybe it isn't. They're dealing with health issues or caring for a sick parent, or they just lost a loved one. Life is hard. I completely get it. And here's what I've also noticed. The writers who wait for the perfect time are still waiting years later because the perfect time never comes. There's always a reason not to do this. One writer has been saying finish it this year for 4 years in a row, same goal. 4 years, nothing has changed. Not because she's lazy, but because nothing in her process has actually changed so that she'll move forward. Now, I'm not going to pressure you. If now isn't the right time for some reason, you're a grown person, you can make your own decisions. Obviously, I respect that. But if you're waiting for some magical moment in the future when your life is going to open up and you're going to have all this time, money, and resources and energy to work on your writing, Will that ever actually come? What I found for myself and the writers I work with are that you have to learn to make it happen in the middle of your messy life. There's never going to be a perfect time. There's never going to be a time where everything is smooth. Things aren't going to clear up in 3 months, and you have to learn how to keep writing even when your life is messy. Because let's say that magical time does open up for 3 months and you get to work on your writing. What happens when your life starts getting messy again? Well, you haven't built up the habit of doing it anyway. You're gonna end up stop writing and you're gonna get stuck again. So here's the thing. If your writing is important to you and you've been saying, I'm gonna do it tomorrow, I'm gonna do it someday, year after year after year, or you've been kind of working on it but not making real progress, at some point you've gotta decide, is this important enough to make it fit in my life and start making it happen?
