Greetings, writers. And when I say “writers,” I mean you. Yes, you.

• Even if you’ve never published a thing and you’re still waiting for someone to say yes to your novel.
• Even if your novel is still a first draft. I feel like my first draft is a drawer full of No. 2 pencils that need sharpening.
• Even if what you have is a Word file you’ve thrown everything into, like a blender or a dumpster.
• Even if the shapeless thing you have in your head exists only as scribbles on blue and yellow Post-its you stuck to your refrigerator.

Because we are all kicking it.

I often say that writers have one hobby in common: Complaining. This is not true. Our hobby is time management. We have plenty to do just getting ourselves and the people we love through the day. Archimedes, who was a writer just like us, said, “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world.” (We know this because Archimedes’ wife, Clarice, immediately wrote this down on a Post-it and stuck it to their fridge.) Time management is the lever we use to move the world and find precious time to write.

If what you want to do is write, and if you are still writing, even if it has been years since you embarked on this dream, then you are a success. Ray Bradbury said you only fail if you stop writing. And we know that because Clarice was visiting the Bradburys and she wrote that one down, too.

I have a 75,000-word first draft that I am still trying to revise. I haven’t made much progress since June, but John O’Hara never made much progress in the summer, either. He titled a collection of his stories Waiting for Winter because winter was when he wrote his novels. Like me, this famous novelist spent his summers surfin’, sunbathin’, and cruisin’ through the hamburger stand now.

August is about to end. School is about to start. Here in the U.S., the Labor Day weekend has always seemed to me to be invitation as irresistible as the finale from the William Tell Overture. We have four months until the end of year. I know that the world seems like shit right now, but let’s remember that people still lived their lives and loved who they loved and tried to be creative during both world wars and no end of plagues.

Turn your attention to the writing project that lights you up, even if you can only find 15 minutes a day for it. I want to report substantial progress by the time I climb into my tux for New Year’s Eve. I want you to report the same. Remember the words of writer and windsurfer Albert Camus: “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”

Stand up on your hind legs and roar!