Just write, dammit.

I used to think that coming up with a story -- plot, characters and background -- was easy.  Writing it in a readable way was hard.

That is, anyone could come up with a story, but not many people could put that story on paper so that people would want to read it.

But as time went on, I realized that coming up with a predictable, cliched, and shallow story is easy.  Making it surprising and new and with deeper meaning was hard.

The writing is hard either way.

Of course, the two things are inextricably linked.

I pretty much blocked myself for years with the feeling that I needed to avoid being predictable and shallow.  That I needed a stronger story.

What I really needed to do was write, and see what happened.  And then write again, and see what happened. 

I have a saying, that I think I made up,  "You can only write as deep as you yourself are."

So, I just need to write the best story I can, and figure that I'll go as deep as I am.