There are 100,000 reasons not to write. Maybe your family life is crazy and you are tearing around like a banshee taking care of people who depend on you. Maybe work has gotten really hectic with important, interesting projects that require your personal love and devotion and you come home super-tired everyday and feeling a bit brain drained. Maybe your six year old daughter has suddenly become a punk and won’t go to bed at a decent hour so you can get a moment of peace and quiet. Maybe… but that’s no excuse.

You can write 350 words today. You can write another 350 words tomorrow. You can write 350 words everyday, five days a week, for the next year and, at the end of that year, you will have a 91,000 word first draft. It will need editing. It will need fussing over, but it will be a thing that exists that you made. You will have written a book.

Inspired yet? Don’t thank me. Thank Chuck Wendig. He’s the foul-mouthed drill sergeant screaming in your face until you collapse into a place beyond tears, a place beyond excuses. He’s the guy that calls BS and tells you to stop hemming and hawing and get to work. He’s the guy that gives you a free punch in the nose because, sometimes, you need a good punch in the nose.

If you want to write stuff but feel trapped by the belief that you don’t have time, read Wendig’s post, then close your browser and get to work. You owe yourself 350 words. Ready. Set. Go!