Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.
— https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2015/09/24/al-kennedys-ten-rules-for-writing-fiction/
The reason this cuts deep is that identity built on aesthetics is cheap and identity built on output is not. Anyone can look like a writer for an afternoon. Sitting down and producing four hundred mediocre words before lunch, then doing it again tomorrow, is the actual craft, and it can't be faked or costumed. Try this: set a timer for twenty minutes today and write badly on purpose, no editing, just to prove the chair-and-page transaction works without any mood-setting ritual first. The caution is that pure volume worship can turn into its own performance, grinding out pages to feel virtuous while ignoring whether anything you're writing is worth finishing. Discipline should serve the work, not replace the thinking that makes the work good. Write, yes — but also read back what you wrote.
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