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When I was about 16 years old, I was enrolled in a summertime art program at an art school in Orlando Florida. Every weekend, we would gather in a classroom and draw the subjects laid out in front of us. I wasn’t a particularly good student, partially because I didn’t really like the work of the teacher. So it was hard to appreciate taking instruction from her when sometimes I felt like she really didn’t know what she was talking about.

Being young, I was absolutely certain that I already knew everything that I could ever possibly know about everything. Ahh those were the days! To quote the song, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

That said, there was one particular incident that had a huge impact on me even to this day.

It was a warm sunny afternoon, and the class sat in a circle around a still life of seashells and fruit. The door to the classroom was open, and I sat on my easel with my back to the singing birds outside.

My paper was blank. I was uninspired. I couldn’t bring myself to begin. I didn’t even know where to start.

I was suffering from artists block. The scene seemed so complex and I couldn’t even imagine where my first pencil strokes should go. I sat with my blank paper, my pencil in my hand, frozen in inaction.

My instructor came by eventually, and asked over my shoulder, “Why haven’t you drawn anything?”

I replied simply, “I just don’t know where to start.”

And then she said to me the words that I will always remember: “When in doubt, move your pencil.”

Her point of course was that if you just start drawing something, even if it’s bad, it loosens up your mind and your hand and eventually, before you know it, rough lines lead to tighter more confident strokes and eventually to a finished drawing.

She was right. I started sketching. Loosely drawing out the big shapes, and then adding detail over the forms. When I was finished I had what I felt was one of the best drawings that I had ever done.

Since that time, I’ve applied this over and over throughout my life.

Whenever I’ve been stuck, I force myself to just move my pencil.

If it’s code that I’m stuck on, I just start writing even if it’s not particularly good. I can always re-factor it later.

Now today as I begin work on my book, I find myself again looking at this huge project and not always knowing for sure where to start. So what do I do? I just start writing, even if it’s bad. I can always change it later. Call it a rough draft.

And amazingly enough, it still works.