I’ve had a lot of questions over the past few months about what separates the top writers from the next schlub on the street with an epic writing voice. Stephen King explained this in his memoir, On Writing, and I’ll paraphrase him here: You cannot be a great writer if you aren’t writing constantly. I find that this is much like you cannot be a great athlete if you don’t practice.
Allen Iverson famously detonated his career with this telling rant about practice. He didn’t get that keeping yourself in that routine of doing something makes you absolutely golden when the moment strikes. For writers inspiration comes when it wants to, but inspiration, like chance, favors the prepared mind. Great writers practice all the time. They don’t get trapped by the lulls in writing. They write every day–even if what they produce is garbage. Being able to work through the bad days might be the most important part of the craft.