The Single Most Accurate (and Motivating) Quote about Writing

Dark Matter, Your Future Self, and Finding the Motivation to Write Without an Audience, Advance, or Deadline.

A few weeks back I was taking my pup, Rue Billy, on our daily sunset jog. That evening I happened to be listening to a Podcast that I was just turned on to by a friend. This new favorite podcast of mine is called Ologies with Alie Ward, and it breaks down different fields of science, or different “ologies” if you will.

The episode I was listening to felt incredibly kismet because it was all about “dark matter.” At that time, I was watching a show (Dark, on Netflix) and also reading a book (Dark Matter by Blake Crouch) which each centered around the ideas of dark matter and the multiverse. This episode of Ologies was called—Scotohylology (DARK MATTER) with Dr. Flip Tanedo.

Rue getting dried off after one of our sunset beach jogs. Good gurl.

Flip apparently grew up with aspirations to be a writer, well before becoming one of the world's foremost experts on dark matter (which isn’t actually dark if you were wondering).

As they spoke about his origin story and original dream of becoming a famous author, Alie—the genuinely brilliant host that she is—offered up this quote about writing as a way to normalize Flip’s dragging feet.

Alie asked, “Do you still write?” Flip responded by saying, “I was never a great writer” and continued to say that writing is a rather slow and laborious slog for him, but that he does still have a dream of producing a well-loved book someday. Alie jumps in with the perfect response saying, “Nobody who writes likes it, nobody! It’s like that famous Dorothy Parker quote…”

“I hate writing, but love having written.”

I stopped mid-jog to take a quick mental note of how spot-on this quote is about my relationship to writing, and I paused to remember the name “Dorothy Parker.” Having self-published a travel memoir, I understand that feeling intimately.

It took incredible amounts of willpower to get up early and write before work, or to skip a fun night out for a date with my computer. But, every time I put down a new story I was beaming with pride. Knowing I was 2% closer to finishing the…