Two thoughts here. First, I agree with your just keep writing notion (which for me, is Dory [from Finding Nemo] saying "just keep swimming). I had a revelation a few years back that's really helped me, that the only way to fail as a writer is to not write (making the analogy to sports where you might do pushups "to failure", in which case failure is the inability to do a push-up. Second, the forty days that produce the forty minutes has a lot to do with being prepared to "be lucky", right? All that longhand note-writing you did was the work that prepared your brain to be able to have the brilliant thoughts and discoveries it had during those forty minutes. This is why we read, and write notes, and watch Netflix, and have conversations, and think a lot while driving. It's all preparation that helps us be ready when the idea comes.
Yes! I bristle so much at the folks who rigidly insist that the only thing that's writing is writing because it simply is not and has never been true. I tell my writing students that writing is at best 25 percent of the job. The rest is planning, research, revising, revising, revising, re--you get the idea!
Two thoughts here. First, I agree with your just keep writing notion (which for me, is Dory [from Finding Nemo] saying "just keep swimming). I had a revelation a few years back that's really helped me, that the only way to fail as a writer is to not write (making the analogy to sports where you might do pushups "to failure", in which case failure is the inability to do a push-up. Second, the forty days that produce the forty minutes has a lot to do with being prepared to "be lucky", right? All that longhand note-writing you did was the work that prepared your brain to be able to have the brilliant thoughts and discoveries it had during those forty minutes. This is why we read, and write notes, and watch Netflix, and have conversations, and think a lot while driving. It's all preparation that helps us be ready when the idea comes.
Yes! I bristle so much at the folks who rigidly insist that the only thing that's writing is writing because it simply is not and has never been true. I tell my writing students that writing is at best 25 percent of the job. The rest is planning, research, revising, revising, revising, re--you get the idea!