Early to the Movies + Writing Bitch

Today's pictures are subpar. Michael and I went to see The World's End, and I snapped a picture of the movie theater as we walked over from the pizza place where we had dinner.

Lately we haven't been so great at time estimation -- for the second time in a row, we ended up at the theater too early. I took this second picture while we sat outside, waiting for the theater to be cleaned. 

The movie was good,  the kind where at some point you realize everyone in the theater is laughing, and you're laughing, too. 

That's enough of my fascinating movie story. I'm supposed to be writing right now, but I'm procrastinating. Why is it that writing has to be such a cruel bitch? I say I want to write, and I associate such good feelings with having written, but when it comes down to actually doing all the things I say I want to do, I balk. It's too hard. Am I worried I won't be able to do it? Am I worried I'll find out once and for all that this dream is pathetic and I don't have it in me? I know logically that I can do it, and I do have it in me. Maybe I won't ever be a bestselling author, but I have the basics, and anything past that is just an issue of putting the time in and working hard. I know it doesn't have to be and won't be perfect. It's just so hard to get started. It's so much easier to just mess around on the internet. 

I was thinking all of these thoughts (and, yes, messing around on the internet) when this quote came across my twitter feed:

"Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down." -- Neil Gaiman

This is good advice, and I've heard similar words before. I should suck it up and take them to heart. Just put a word down. Just effing do it. 

Jon Winokur's @AdviceToWriters twitter account is a great one to follow, by the way. Though I seem unable to take any action most of the time, there's often inspiration there. Like in these:

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."
 -- Stephen King

"I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms 39 times before I was satisfied." -- Ernest Hemingway

 "You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it." -- Susan Orlean 

Ugh.