🚦 TREE 278: Just f***ing start, 3 of 3

Living up to Annie Dillard’s expectations. (As. If.)

Part one, part two

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One.

I developed my ironclad production schedule under orders from Annie Dillard, in The Writing Life:

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives, [she wrote, peering at me accusingly.] What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.

I don’t always stick to my own schedule. How could I? But the days when I really did JUST F***ING START were my best ones. Writing is marathon training. There are lots of ways to cover 26.2 miles, but none of them work until you take the first step.

So whatever your project, whatever your dream, just f***ing start. It’s the only way to f***ing finish.

Two.

Three.

A propulsive tune that helps me START. And keep going.

Thank you so much, Peter, for your contributions this week! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Peter’s travel and transformation journal ‘The Road 2 Elsewhere’ at petermoore.substack.com.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go START!
Jeff