The Art Of Mind’s Blog

by Scott Benton

A long time ago I decided I wanted to write. When I sat down to put my thoughts on paper, I quickly realized I didn’t have the slightest idea how to begin.

So I took classes on writing. I sat in lecture halls for hours listening to experts talk endlessly about writing. I read books on writing, I listened to bootlegged audiotapes of Robert McKee who talked about writing—and this is a man who knows about writing.

But after all that work, I still didn’t know how to write.

So I read those books again. I figured I missed something—somehow I managed to overlook the one primary rule I needed before I could begin. But after reading those books a second time, I still didn’t have the key. I didn’t know what I was missing.

All I knew is that I wasn’t writing.

The writers I knew had already made an important discovery, but I had not caught wind of it. They could have easily told me their discovery, but I wouldn’t have listened. It’s something I had to arrive at myself, as you will arrive at for yourself. They knew the code, as I’m telling you now, and it won’t sink in right away for you either. But at some point, and trust me on this, it will make sense. It will become your mantra, your elixir, the answer you seek.

SHUT UP AND WRITE.

That’s all there is. I know it sounds crazy. I know it goes against everything you’re feeling in your chest right now. I know you have the excuses worked out. They’re lined up nicely like a page of Robert Frost, as I had them lined up in my own mind.

SHUT UP AND WRITE.

The truth is you’re scared. The truth is I was scared. The minute you sit down in front of the blank page you realize what every other writer before you has realized: there’s something terrifying about writing. The fear stands in front of us like an impenetrable fortress; like an impossible barrier cutting off all forward progress. We wrack our brain for an answer. How do we move ahead? How do we go straight through?

SHUT UP AND WRITE.

I learned that shut up and write is nothing you can tell another person. I learned it was something I had to tell myself, and once I did, I wrote with abandon. I had gotten myself bogged down in process and theories and lectures and instruction. What I hadn’t considered is that writing is something you learn slowly. Bit-by-bit. A little at a time, and it’s something you learn by doing.

Writing is a craft. Writing is an art. Writing is sweat. Writing is toil. Writing is work. You can get from Los Angeles to New York in a new Ferrari or in a beat up Honda, but either way, you’ve got to leave the garage first and get on the road.

SHUT UP AND WRITE.

I didn’t find this in a book or lecture. I didn’t hear it from friends (even though they probably said it many times). It wasn’t until I said it to myself that I was able to start, and I found the more I wrote, the more I stopped distracting myself. Eventually, I saw how much I could do. Good or bad has never mattered to me, nor has it mattered to many writers when they sit down to work.

But the first step is to admit that no matter what, you are already a writer—a good one. Stop trying to learn the craft. You’re already there. You have something to say. You have enough life experience. You can sit in front of a blank page and write something—anything you like. You’re a writer this minute. Not next year, not in the distant future.

Right now.

If you want to do yourself a favor, then sit down and have a conversation. And in that conversation, make sure to tell yourself that above all else, you must first

SHUT UP AND WRITE.