Writing is unpredictable. We don’t always know where it will begin and end, or even what the first letter will be until ink hits page.

As such, the result of what we write can be frustration and disappointment when the words — our words — don’t manifest in the blank space before us. 

These moments are difficult, uncomfortable in their feel — the experience of being locked in a cage, hands on bars, straining with all our might to bend iron to will.

Yet it does not budge.

The trick then is to do the very thing that is the cause of our strife — continue to write. Put in the hard work. Embrace the push and pull and back and forth. Spar with words, with white space, with who you are as a thing in this world. All while remembering that the right words will come in time.

They may just need a lengthy runway to land.

Our task then is to be there, waiting at the gate, ready to greet them with a long-awaited smile.