Here, curated by the wonderful folk over at Brain Pickings, is a great collection of great writers’ advice on writing: https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/05/03/advice-on-writing/. Many of these are aimed at novelists, those hewing out great literary works, but there’s plenty here for people just trying to put one word after another to get their message across too.
The first is the one that really sold it to me:
“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” – Jennifer Egan
I find that incredibly heartening. It’s like going for a run, the first few minutes always seem hard and ungainly somehow, but then within 5 or 10 minutes it all comes together, the breathing becomes more regular, the muscles and joints warm up and remember how to move together, the rhythm and the endorphins kick in together. And now that I run every day, that fluidity comes more easily and more quickly. But the price of the joyful, easy miles is always those first few hundred clumsy yards, and every time I have a stab of doubt that this time it won’t come good.
In the end, it always does, eventually.