I watched the third installment of the Knives Out franchise yesterday—and I liked it. It’s a good movie, and even one of the better films of the year. It’s obvious that everyone involved had a lot of fun making it, and that Rian Johnson is a smart writer.

Yes, he messed up Star Wars—but only because Kathleen Kennedy allowed him to. Johnson’s filmography proves time and again that he can write clever, original stories. Wake Up Dead Man is a great example of his ability to deliver smart, well-constructed plotlines.

That said, the one thing that almost made me give up on the movie was the first act. It’s simply too long. More than half an hour passes before we get the first murder victim. After that, the movie really picks up steam and keeps you on the edge of your seat. At times, it’s downright brilliant—just like the first two Knives Out films. But I can imagine some viewers dropping out during the first act because it drags a bit.

The best way to get people interested in your story is to start with a bang. Throw the audience straight into the action—just like Tom Cruise does in every Mission: Impossible movie.

Of course, you need to develop the plot and characters at some point, or you won’t have a story at all. But first, you have to capture the audience’s attention before they’re willing to invest in your character and plot development.

As great as Wake Up Dead Man is, I would have started with the murder and then used flashbacks to convey the plot and character development that’s crammed into the first act.

Still, I liked the movie—a lot—and I highly recommend watching it.

I was hesitant to publish my first book in 2023. In fact, I was so hesitant that I kept it on my computer for years, even though it was already finished. I felt the same hesitation with my second book in 2024—and my third in 2024 as well. I guess, that feeling of “It’s not good enough” never really goes away.

After publishing three books and nearly a dozen short stories, I’ve come to an important conclusion: if you aim for perfection, you will never publish anything. Of course you should try to produce your best work, but if you obsess over perfection, no sentence will ever feel good enough—and you’ll never release anything at all.

What’s better: publishing a book that is “good enough,” or never publishing a book because it isn’t perfect?

Another thing to keep in mind is that even if you did reach perfection, some readers would still disagree. There are people on Amazon who give The Lord of the Rings one-star reviews. There are people who downvote YouTube videos of babies playing with puppies. Some crazy people rate Christopher Nolan movies 1 out of 10.

The lesson here is: Your idea of perfection will never be everyone’s perfection.

Since universal perfection is impossible, why try to reach it? Aim for creating a book that is good—and then release it instead.

With all of this in mind, I’ve established my third iron rule of writing: If something is finished, publish it. If you don’t, you’ll get stuck in editing limbo, endlessly trying to “fix” something that can’t be fixed anyway.

To sum up the iron rules so far:

1. Collect all ideas.
2. Work on one idea until you have a first draft.
3. Publish everything that is finished.

This year, I set a goal to write at least one thousand words every day. So far, I’ve managed to stick to it. On most days, I wrote even more. Writing stories for my books and articles for this website give me a strong reason to keep going—and once you do it long enough, habit takes over.

I don’t even think about whether I should write today; I just do it, because I’ve done it long enough that it has become a natural part of my daily routine.

So, does writer’s block exist? I don’t think so. At least I’ve never experienced it.

If I look at writing from the perspective of quantity, the only times I get stuck are when I start thinking too much about quality. Not every article I write and not every page of a book is perfect. Sometimes I even write complete trash.

But writing trash can still lead to quality. Here’s why: if you can’t produce something good today and you stop writing, you certainly won’t create anything of value tomorrow. But if you keep writing—even if it’s garbage—quantity will lead to quality almost automatically because you keep putting words on paper.

If you try writing 1K a day for an entire year, you will learn something about writing. Even if you only learn it subconsciously. And this will improve your quality afterwards. So just writing more and more will make you better. You only have to stick with it and never give up.

Here are a few guidelines I use to continue writing daily:

• When I write fiction, I follow one rule only: just write, without editing. Editing is only allowed after the writing part is finished.
• When I get an idea for a story, I write it down, no matter whether it seems good or not. When I finish a story, I review my swipe file and choose the next idea that’s promising enough for a book or a blog post.
• When I write non-fiction, I always create a simple outline before I start which are basically just sub-headlines. Writing then becomes a matter of connecting the headlines I planned in advance.
• I keep a swipe file for non-fiction as well, so I never run out of blog post ideas. It already contains more concepts than I could possibly turn into articles in my lifetime.
• Use ChatGPT for feedback: You can’t type in “write me a book” and expect good results. But you can use ChatGPT as a Beta reader who is always available and delivers quick and targeted feedback.

These guidelines have helped me avoid writer’s block entirely. I can confidently say I haven’t experienced it once this year. And I’m convinced you won’t either if you follow these four simple rules.

I keep a swipe file on my computer, and I have physical notebooks scattered everywhere. I even keep one next to my bed in case an idea hits me right after waking up.

My swipe file has grown to more than 300 story ideas by now. I’ll never be able to work on all of them—and to be honest, some of them aren’t even worth developing. But I still collect every single one.

There’s a good reason for that: over the years, I’ve realized that different parts of my mind seem to wake up depending on which stage of writing I’m in. To make the part I currently need work best, I have to quiet down all the others.

For example: The most creative part is needed for generating new ideas. But during editing, I need a completely different mindset, because the creative side is terrible at judging what I’ve written. Outlining requires yet another area—a blend of creativity and critical thinking.

When I don’t let one specific part take over, they all start talking over each other. And when that happens, nothing works: idea generation, outlining, editing… everything just falls apart. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

That’s why I collect ideas without judging them at all. I don’t rate them or evaluate them—I just write them down.

Only later, once I’ve finished a book and I’m deciding what to work on next, do I go through my swipe file and rate the ideas.

I’m convinced that if I tried to generate and judge ideas at the same time, I would discard most of them, assuming they weren’t good enough. Eventually, I’d end up with no ideas at all, because the constant cycle of generating an idea, rating it poorly, and throwing it away would discourage the creative part of my mind from offering ideas in the first place.

By making it a habit to let ideas emerge freely and uncritically—and by writing them down no matter how good or bad they seem—I’ve allowed the creative part of my brain to express itself without hesitation.

Of course, everyone works differently. But if you’re thinking about writing your own stories, I recommend trying this approach: Keep a notebook with you at all times and jot down whatever comes to mind while watching a movie, reading a book, daydreaming, waiting at the doctor’s office, or listening to music. I’m pretty sure that when you look back over your notes after a month, you’ll find at least one idea in your swipe file that’s worth developing.

This week, I had a bit of an epiphany. I’d just completed my STORY52 project and had to decide what to work on next. I started with four different ideas, and after writing two pages for each, none of them clicked. So I abandoned all of them.

However, abandoning them didn’t free my mind. It didn’t help me think about the next idea or dive into a new project clearheaded. Instead, my thoughts kept circling back to the ideas I had tossed aside. I kept asking myself: Should I return to them? Is there something in those ideas worth exploring after all?

I realized soon after that most story ideas will stick with you forever—until you finally flesh them out into full stories. The 52 short stories I wrote for STORY52 are on paper and therefore out of my head. But the four ideas I deemed “not good enough” are still lurking in the depths of my mind, creeping around a dark corner to remind me of their existence whenever I start thinking about writing something else.

The only way to get these idea-creatures out of my head is to actually work on them. Even if there are better ideas in my swipe file or floating around in my mind, the abandoned ones won’t let me go until I’ve at least finished a first draft.

That experience helped me formulate a simple rule for my writing: When you start working on an idea, finish it. Always. No excuses.

I intend to stick to that rule from now on. It will lead to more stories, more books, and a lot more sanity.