I had an idea for an article.

So I unlocked my phone and opened a new Google doc and leaned back into the couch. And then—and then and then and then—nothing. I just sat there, watching the cursor blink at me.

Blink. 
Blink. Blink. 
Blink. Blink. Blink.

“Awu-headie?”

I looked up. Kels was by the door, shoes on, lips pursed. She was looking at me. “Are you ready?” she repeated. We were going somewhere, running late.

“Uh-huh, coming,” I said, “sorry, coming-coming.” I leaned forward. “Just wanna get this idea down—” 

She tapped her foot. 

“—before it’s gone.” 

Kevin Kelly is the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine.

I admire him and often seek out his wisdom—and this one thing he said on a podcast has never left me: 

“What I discovered,” said Kevin Kelly, “which is what many writers discover, is that I write in order to think. I’d say, ‘I think I have an idea,’ but when I begin to write it, I realize, ‘I have no idea,’ and I don’t actually know what I think until I try to write it,” he said. “That was a revelation.”

It’s hard to express how much hearing this helped me, how much insecurity it staved off, how much confidence it preserved, knowing that ideation and writing are symbiotic, interdependent. Yes. 

“What’s the idea?” Kels said.

I looked up at her, mouth agape, blinking. And then back down at my phone, at that blinking, taunting cursor.

Blink. 
Blink. Blink. 
Blink. Blink. Blink.

“Actually,” I stood up, “I’m not sure yet.” I put on my boots and laced them up. “I'll come back to it,” I said. 

I grabbed my coat and my keys and we walked out. 

“Write to get ideas,” said Kevin Kelly, “not to express them.”

An idea in your head is next to nothing until you can write it.

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