Don’t be misled into believing that you need to be in the mood to write an awesome blog post—or anything for that matter.

While inspiration is certainly nice to have when writing, it’s not necessary to do your job well.

Contrary to what most writers think, we don’t need to be inspired before words flow through our fingers. The best pieces aren’t necessarily results of bouts of inspiration .

Wanna bet?

Here are some quotes from successful and popular creative people that will release you from the misconception that has been keeping you from being a highly productive blogger.

Neil Gaiman, popular and award-winning novelist.

If you’re only going to write when you’re inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you will never be a novelist—because you’re going to have to make your word count today, and those words aren’t going to wait for you, whether you’re inspired or not.

He couldn’t have said it any better. If you’re a paid blogger or write content for sites or a publication, time is very important. You have deadlines. That means you don’t have the luxury of waiting for inspirationto strike.

Yes, there will be times when you’re stumped and can’t think of something to write or can’t find the words to express your thoughts but that’s not an excuse to say you’re just going to wait for inspiration to strike. There’s no telling when the muse will come. It might take hours, days or weeks.

If you wait for it to come, what happens to your job?

Chuck Close, painter.

Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will—through work—bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea.’

Are you an amateur or a pro? There’s nothing wrong with being called amateur; we’ve all been there. But if you want to be taken seriously, get paid well, and turn in awesome work that clients can rely on, then ditch the I-need-inspiration-to-write mentality.

Just show up, roll your sleeves, and start typing.

There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it halfway, we easily become indolent and apathetic.

See, even one of the most renowned musicians in history acknowledges the fact that you don’t need inspiration to create magnificent work. The worst thing you can do, especially if someone’s depending on your work, is to say you’re not in the mood because that basically tells your client that they should wait until you’re inspired to write. That’ll be a little disrespectful.

Always remember that writing well doesn’t have to depend solely on your muse. While it’s definitely great to feel inspired, its absence shouldn’t be an excuse to not start writing.

It basically comes down to one simple thing: sit down and write. That’s all there is to it.