The dangers of not-writing

I'm coming back to my blog. I'll try to update my blog frequently again.

I find the following passage so striking. It's meant to be for research students in English Department. But I thought it's something I want to share more widely; it tells us vividly why writing lies at the heart of postgraduate study:

This is the most challenging and the most rewarding aspect of research. Most people find that writing is itself a mode of discovery, a hermeneutic path, a process of exploration which may transform the perspective from which one started. Yet for many others the prospect of sitting down at the word-processor or putting pen to paper is a forbidding one. Procrastinaiton [i.e., to keep leaving things you should do until later] is a widespread malaise among university staff and students alike. Some of this may be attributed to a proper and admirable sense of perfectionism and a reluctance to commit even a single word to paper until all the preliminary reading has been completed, all the relevant notes have been taken and all conceivable questions have been answered in advance. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that to get into a habit of not writing, to distance yourself from the therapeutic and invigorating struggle with words, is to increase severly the difficulties which no writer can indefinitely avoid. It is essential to develop a healthy and efficient attitude toward writing. The best way to conquer your inhibitions about writing is to write. Do not wait for the spark from heaven to fall. This is generally the excuse for some kind of evasiveness. You will find that the process of writing often generates its own unexpected inspirations and sends you off on new trails of discovery. [From Department of English and Related Literature, Instruction, Information and Advice for Graduates and Supervisors (University of York, n.d.), p. 48]

'Do not wait for the spark from heaven to fall.' It struck me most. I used to wait for the spark to fall upon me!!