Writing Meditation: Start

Writing Meditation | October 1, 2026

When you are ready to start writing this month, remember this. “The water doesn’t flow until the faucet is turned on,” says Louie L’Amour, the pulp novelist of some two hundred novels. Two hundred! C’mon, man!

I think of how painters begin a painting first by swabbing the canvas with a rag dipped in thinned paint — just to get some movement on the canvas there and eliminate the blank (page).

So, start writing. No matter what. Just get some words down. Scribble away. In time, you can let those first scribbles hit you like a question. Your answer will be your true first draft.

Stay in touch,

David

David Biespiel is the founder of the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters. A poet, novelist, critic, memoirist, and painter, he is a contributor to The New Republic, Slate, and The New Yorker, and the author of fourteen books, most recently, Beautiful Is the World: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2026.

Since 1999, over 10,000 students have enrolled in workshops at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters. Many have succeeded with book and magazine publications, awards, and more. The Attic is a haven for writers where you’ll find inspirational teachers, community, fellowship, and support.