My wife and I took our boys to the beach to get out and get some fresh air.

My boys love the beach - they run around, dig holes, build sandcastles, throw sand at each other.

But there favorite activity at the beach is to bodysurf. They love pushing the limits of what they can do and challenge themselves to find bigger waves to ride.

It got me thinking about how swimming is like writing: a writer pushes to go farther and farther into the story to catch a wave and just ride it to the shore.

It sounds romantic but there’s a catch…

My boys don’t know what’s really in the ocean; they’re ignorant to the dangers - sharks, unimaginable depths, etc. When they run into the ocean they don’t think, “I hope I don’t get bit by a shark today” or “what if I get caught in an undertow and drown?”

They jump right into the ocean and have fun.

That’s what it means to be a writer: to jump into the ocean of the blank page and just let the waves take you somewhere; let it be fun.