The System Behind the Words
I’d heard so many times about this thing called writer’s block — where a writer begins to write, and someone asks them, “How many words have you written?” and they reply, “Seven.” Long pause. Or “Eleven.” Another pause.
For me, it was “Five.”
Makes me laugh now.
I’m a new writer, trying to make something out of this new venture called writing.
Writing doesn’t seem so hard—until you actually sit down and try to write.
So I thought I’d be smart about it. I figured I’d create a system alongside the writing. Something to help me stay organized and feel like I was doing it right.
Here’s the system I made using Notion:
Journal Database – a raw, personal space to pour in thoughts every day, unfiltered. But it didn’t really help. I realized that if I wanted to write well, I had to write with intention—not just dump and hope editing would save it later.
Blog Database – a place to refine ideas from the journal into public posts, hoping to grow my blog and share something useful. But even this didn’t make much sense. If the blogs are already published on my site, which has its own backups, what’s the point of maintaining a separate database?
Book Projects Database – a big-picture area where I grouped blog posts and themes into outlines for books. This, too, didn’t work. I’ve come to feel that writing must happen in pieces, in fragments. And after reading On Writing by Stephen King, I finally understood: writing isn’t about plotting everything in advance—it’s about discovering the story as you go.
In the end, the whole system felt useless. I barely wrote anything, except the old version of this very blog post.
But then something happened.
On the day of this blog post’s edit, I wrote something that didn’t belong in any system. It wasn’t part of a plan. It was just a memory that had stayed with me longer than I expected. A quiet moment.
I opened a blank Word document, picked a clean font—Book Antiqua—and just started writing. No structure. No outline. Just the truth, and the little advice from Stephen King that stayed with me: bring your toolbox, and trust the story to reveal itself.
To my surprise, that piece moved me more than anything I had written before.
And it reminded me why I started writing in the first place.
It will be featured in my upcoming book.
So here’s my new verdict:
Systems can help you show up.
But heart is what makes you stay.
Yes, you can use Notion to organize your thoughts.
Yes, templates and workflows can give structure to chaos.
And yes, these tools can help you build habits that last.
But don’t forget: sometimes the most powerful writing comes when you throw the system out the window. When you start with a blank page, a good font, and a truth that refuses to stay silent.
As Stephen King says in On Writing, every writer needs a toolbox. But what you put in that toolbox—and when you choose to use it—is entirely up to you.
So the system behind the words is—no system.
Make sure you give it a shot!
Originally published at Medium.com on June 3, 2025.