I'm thinking today about the small actions-- with big impact-- that we put off and how gratifying it is when we finally tackle them. And how every time, I'm like, WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG. 1/

When we moved into this house in January, I wanted to paint my office. And then I realized it would cost waaaay too much due to tall walls and weird shapes. Early on, I painted a 5x7 patch on the wall to see how the new color would look. THAT PATCH HAUNTED ME. I HATED IT. 2/

So for three months, every time I went in my office, I was annoyed. I can't do anything about the forever out of stock shelf I need because @IKEAUSA sent me two Box 2s instead of a Box 1, but that patch of blue? That was my fault. It made things feel incomplete. 3/

And then I was just suddenly just DONE. So I sanded it, found the matching paint in the basement, and painted over the blue patch. It took literally 20 minutes and wasn't even that difficult. I could've done it back in January and saved myself THREE MONTHS OF TORMENT. 4/

It empowered me. I cleaned up the garage, unclogged the driveway drain, vacuumed the litter box area of the laundry room, and bought the supplies to regrout the kitchen tiles. All these little annoyances add up, but most of the time, I feel... blocked? Trapped? 5/

And then it struck me: This is what Writer's Block feels like. The task shouldn't be hard, but it is. Every approach seems daunting. I don't know where to start. I'm lost in the weeds. I've learned that the answer sounds impossible but isn't: Just do the thing. Just start it. 6/

If my writing stalls out, there are usually two reasons: Either the task feels too big, or I don't know what to do next. The first step to conquering either issue is the same: Open the document and figure out what needs to happen next. You just have to get started. 7/

This is why Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird is so popular-- writing a book feels like a monumental task, but writing a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page? That's doable. So you do what's doable, and it adds up to the impossible. 8/

If I have a task, I find that it helps if I write down the steps that will accomplish it. Find sandpaper? I can do that. Then it's easy to sand the wall. Figure out the main character's biggest flaw? I can do that. Breaking it down into manageable bites gets things done. 9/

If you're struggling to start or finish a novel, I highly recommend not only Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird and Stephen King's On Writing, but also Story Genius by Lisa Cron and Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. These last two help you break the book down into manageable segments. 10/

When I was painting the patch on the wall, part of my problem was that I was afraid I would mess it up and end up with an even weirder patch--so I didn't do it. Books are like that, too. You're often afraid the book you write won't be good enough. Screw that. Dot it anyway. 11/

Doing something imperfectly is 100x better than the weird stasis you get from wanting to do it but not doing it because you're scared. Jump on in. Write the book. Query too early. Paint the wall. You'll learn more doing it imperfectly than you will doing nothing. 12/

Most of us don't go sit in our perfect attic office and write the perfect book in perfect silence. We write messy books on the subway, during naptime, after bedtime. You can't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect idea. Just get started where you are and fix it later. 13/

If I don't know what happens next in a book, sometimes I'll put [TK] and skip to the next scene I'm 100% certain about and keep writing from there. Later, when I know more, I'll go back and fill in the missing bit. First drafts are a scaffold, not a masterpiece. 14/

Which may not seem connected, but I've never painted over a patch on the wall before or regrouted tile, so these tasks are likewise daunting to me. Then I realized: Much like writing a book, if I mess up, I can just fix it later. Nothing is permanent here. 15/

I love this one quote from Adventure Time. Skeleton Princess wakes up missing her leg and grumbles, "This happens sometimes." Not rage at imperfection, not unmet expectations, not sadness that I'll never write the best book on earth. Just, "Oh, well," and let's write anyway. 16/

Some part of me feels like there's a world where every bow is neatly tied, in which my office is painted blue and both shelves arrived and it isn't always a mess and my books match the way I feel when I start writing them instead of being imperfect. That world doesn't exist.17/