In some ways, starting is easy. One the hardest things you may have to do is to keep going.

But yesterday you said getting started is hard.

It is. Getting those first words down is very hard. But coming back day after day and adding more words and shaping them into something that matters is even harder.

One of the problems is that when you announce to friends that you're writing a book or even something less ambitious like thirty blog posts in thirty days, they are so nice and supportive that you feel you've accomplished it just by announcing it.

This is a phenomenon that dieters encounter. When a dieter announces "I'm going to lose ten pounds", the response is "that's great!"

Initially, it goes well. You know there are always those first few pounds that drop off easily when you eliminate the obvious things and start exercising.

But then it's two weeks later and you're stuck at a weight and your friends ask you how the diet is going and now all you feel is the failure of not achieving your goal. You don't focus on the six pounds you've dropped. All you can see are the four pounds you are short of your goal.

You've failed. Actually, that ice cream looks pretty good right now.

We'll talk about that ice cream in another post - but whether you eat it or not, the next morning you need to keep going.

You need to keep running even though the media coverage of the marathon ended hours ago and the crowds have gone home. Your friends are still there for you if you need them. But mostly you don't need them.

What you need is to sit down and do the work.

Writers always say writing is hard.

Non-writers don't believe them because they never continue long enough to hit the hard part.

To me, this hard part is also the fun part. I can't wait to see how my story decides to reveal itself today. I get to watch a movie that no one else has seen. And if I don't write that movie down, no one else will ever see it.

It would be a shame if no one saw what you are working on.

Keep going.