TIP #41: Writers: Plain Text (and the importance of stop playing with formatting)

Writers are special. We complaint that we don’t have the time to do what we said we love so much. We invent things like “Writers Block”. We spend hours setting the place to write. We spend hours testing pens, software, paper and more. At the end of the day, we create so many excuses that we forgot to do exactly the thing that we want to do the most: Write.
If you are a writer, and write in a computer (laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone) stop using complex software and begin using simple Plain Text. Stop looking if that should be “Bold”, “Italics” or should be “underlined”. Stop looking to see if should be half an inch from the border or three quarters. It is irrelevant.
A writer write. You will have plenty of time to edit, to play, to format and to procrastinate more after you have written.
Stop looking for reasons why you are not writing today, and sit and write. Stop formatting. Stop testing. Stop trying and simply write. Eliminate all the distractions, and write.
i.e. As a writer I recommend (and only write) in Plain Text. Because I know I am good making excuses not to write, and really good at getting distracted. I don’t need the software I am using to write to provide me with good excuses not to write and to focus on formatting. I have always found enough time to play with that after I have written and when I can procrastinate about that.