When Lauren Martin was writing her book, and dealing with the anxiety of it, she sought out advice from other writers (via Jimmy Chim). She learned:

The consensus was obvious: Stay present. Stay with what’s in front of you. Don’t get ahead of yourself, don’t worry about the middle and the ending, just stick with the page you’re on. Of all the writers, the hundreds of Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith and Agatha Christie quotes, Jane Smiley, author of fourteen books and the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, explained it most clearly. “Writing,” she said, “is only one word at a time. It’s not a whole bunch of things happening at once. Various things can present themselves, but when you face the page, it’s a couple of words, and then a couple more words, and, if you’re lucky, a sentence or a paragraph.”

You and I live in a future-oriented world; we make resolutions, plans, and bets. But many aspects of the world—including creative work—doesn’t work like that; it’s what you do in the present that counts. When writing is challenging, it’s because it needs us to practice being present, when we’re so used to practicing being in the future or in the past. 

You can plan and outline all you want, but at the end of the day, the way the words are coming out and the energy they make you feel—and, by extension, what the person reading will feel—is what matters. When I interviewed Michael Saviello, also known as Big Mike, for my book, he told me, “Put the paint on the canvas!”

Writing every day is a really great practice for being present.

P.S., When Kelton Reid asked Seth Godin how much time he spent writing, Seth responded, “16 [hours]. I’m not kidding…. Do you mean typing? I don’t know, fifteen minutes. I can type fast.” Seth knows he can do a lot of his work without his equipment.