I saw a clip of Jimmy Carr saying that on stage and almost without thinking I wrote it down.
Not because I had anything clear to say about it at the time. It just felt worth keeping.
A line like that can go a couple of ways, I think. You can take it at face value and move on. Or you can catch something underneath it… something a bit more practical than it first sounds.
From what I remember, he was talking about his process. Writing constantly. Trying things out in small moments at the end of shows. Seeing what works, what doesn’t and adjusting from there.
No big reveal. No waiting around for the perfect idea.
Just doing the work in front of people and letting that shape what comes next.
I jotted a few thoughts down after hearing it. Nothing polished. Just fragments, really. Then left it. Came back to it a day or two later to see if there was anything in it.
Which, thinking about it now, feels quite close to the point he was making.
There’s something in the gap between what we think might work and what actually does, and the only way across that gap is to try something and see.
I used to spend quite a bit of time on the thinking side of that line.
Turning ideas over. Adding to them. Tweaking the wording in my head before anything ever made it onto the page. It felt productive at the time – like I was getting somewhere.
But very little ever moved beyond that.
What I’ve noticed more recently is that the act of starting, even when it’s a bit clumsy, changes the whole thing.
A sentence written down has a different quality to a sentence imagined. It’s easier to see what’s there. Easier to see what isn’t.
Sometimes something that felt sharp in your head looks a bit flat on the page. Other times it holds up better than expected. Either way, you get something to work with.
And that seems to be the bit that matters.
The more I’ve written, the more there is to write about. Not because life has suddenly become more interesting, but because I’m paying attention in a slightly different way.
Little things catch.
A comment on a podcast that hangs around longer than you expect.
A moment outside with the family, walking or just taking in the sounds of nature… something about it feels worth noting.
Snippets of conversation you pick up without really meaning to, where a phrase or an idea sticks for reasons you can’t quite explain.
I tend to write those down now. Quickly, before they drift off.
I’ve learnt the hard way that telling yourself you’ll remember later doesn’t usually work out. It feels convincing in the moment. Less so a few hours down the line when it’s gone.
So, if I can I stop and make a note. Not neatly. Not fully formed. Just enough to come back to.
“There are things you can discover by taking action that you’re never going to discover in the privacy of your own head.”
Jamie Smart
You don’t always arrive with a clear point.
Often it appears somewhere along the way.
And perhaps that’s the quieter part of what Carr was getting at.
Not that inspiration doesn’t exist.
Just that it tends to show up once you’ve already started.
Patrick Hickman 