If You’re Waiting For The “Perfect Time” To Write, Let’s Talk About That

Here's what I've learned after 7 years of staring at blank pages and wondering if I should quit.

Image via Substack.

It was a weekday morning. I don’t remember which one. Probably Tuesday. I had coffee on my desk, barely touched, and a blank screen in front of me that hadn’t changed in over an hour.

I kept thinking, “I should be past this.” Past the doubt. Past the second-guessing. But the longer I stared at the screen, the more I felt like a fraud. Every sentence I tried felt like I was forcing it. Like I was trying too hard to sound like a writer, instead of just saying what I meant.

I opened up a half-written draft from the week before. Tried to fix it. Deleted a few paragraphs. Rewrote the intro. Then deleted the whole thing. So I got up. Made another coffee. Sat back down. Checked my stats. No new comments. No replies. I told myself it didn’t matter, but it did. I still cared. And I hated that I cared.

The hardest part wasn’t the numbers. It was not knowing if any of this would ever go anywhere. I wasn’t looking for a viral moment. I just wanted something to click. A sign I was …