Reasons I Don’t Write

My favorite quote about the art of writing comes from Nora Ephron:

“The hardest thing about writing is writing”

It’s been eight months since I’ve posted anything on medium.com. EIGHT MONTHS! There are seven drafts waiting to be finished (or deleted). And if you know the size of a small Home Depot moving box, I have one that is full of nothing but ideas staring at me every day. It took that long, but particularly the last three days to decide upon the first topic. It’s taken half of a day to write and rewrite the title as well as the subtitle. And then there’s the formatting itself. Medium.com is a relatively easy platform on which to write, but you’re talking to Mister Low-Tech here. In this eight-month period, I have “amassed” 24 Followers. There are several friends and family members, to which I give thanks, but the lion’s share I do not know. I scratch my head and think, “why are they following me”?

Therein lies part of the problem. My self-talk tells me I’m not good enough to be a writer. I can never measure up to what all of these other immensely talented people are producing.

Thing is, I know how to write, but I am reading way too many articles on how I should write. Take the title for instance. Many say it should start with a number — people are naturally drawn to lists. I get it, but to me, that sounds like writing in…