Write First. Read Second.

Write first. Read second.

I’ve been doing it backwards my whole life, reading first and then writing–writing about the reading, writing in the style of the reading. Now the reading is a reward for doing the writing first.

The discipline of blogging helps here. So does journaling, I figure, though I have not been a disciplined journaler for years and years. First thing: write. Then read the paper, or your blogs, or your book, or Twitter.

We need to hear what you have to say more than we need you to know what everyone else is saying. Get to the reading though, please; we need you to know what you’re talking about.

But write first.