For two weeks my mind keeps telling myself: write, write, WRITE YOU FOOL.
I still haven’t. Perhaps it’s all too overwhelming. Perhaps perfectionism stands in my way (as it always does). Perhaps writing and publishing this pushes me to just pick up my pen, grab my notebook and start to write, write, WRITE.
I’ll let you know if it worked.
I face the same problem, so I feel your pain.
One of the things that seems to help is keeping a journal. For me, the habit of getting out my book at the start of each day and thinking through what happened the day before as I write has become a ritual which enables me to write other things too. In these complicated times I seem to be producing seven or eight hundred words a day of such reflection, so any further writing seems somehow less significant. Another five hundred or even a thousand more words on a writing project is (in some sense) just more of the same.
On this topic, I would like to thank you for keeping this blog. I have been reading since the days of your PhD struggles (coincidentally a situation where I also now find myself) and I find great hope in your small slices of Dutch life. I hope you and your family continue to stay well.
Thank you for your kind words Frank!
I did write.