Julia Cameron says you have to write with a pen. Eric Maisel says you should write on a computer, why waste time doing longhand. Julia Cameron says you should write three pages of bla bla bla. Eric Maisel says never write bla bla bla. Is your goal to be a perpetual therapy client or a writer? If you want to be a writer, stop talking about the writing you want to do, the writing you will do when you write, the writing you didn’t do, or you are avoiding. Just write.

I point out these differences because they are both creativity coaches I trust, with some reservations, and they take entirely opposite positions on most matters. They share an idea of commitment– that you must keep the contract, make the commitment to write sacred. Beyond that, they have differences. She talks about God, and spiritual aphorisms title her essays: Easy Does It. One Day At A Time. His philosophy as dry and comfortless as Camus: life is hard and then you die.

I’m very rule based. So when Julia says you need to write with a pen I panic a little bit, even after I remind myself that Eric doesn’t care, even after I make a strong case for typing. In the end, I have to decide for myself. The only important question must be: what is important to me?