after last night, i'm seeing a lot of people expressing despair and wondering how to find hope. i've shared some thoughts on that before, but i think they're worth re-upping now. this is what works for me; maybe it will work for you too

for me, hope and action are related the way inspiration and writing are. i think many people have this idea that, as a writer, i must feel Inspired before i sit down and write. and if that were true, i would maybe have written like, five minutes of music and one essay in my entire life. instead, for me, it's almost exactly the reverse: there is something i want to make, and so i sit down and try to make it. i set aside time to do this, regular time, daily time when i can. a time when i'm gonna sit down and try to put some art together. clock in, clock out. and sometimes — not always, but sometimes — sometimes *in the process of doing it*, i find myself becoming inspired after the fact. but the doing comes first. the doing is more important