Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Two ways of leaving a mark are on offer, and they turn out to test the same thing. Writing worth reading requires having noticed something true, and doing something worth recording requires having acted on something that mattered. Both rule out the comfortable middle, where you describe other people’s work and live carefully enough that nothing needs describing. Neither needs to be grand; a letter that helps someone or a Saturday spent fixing a neighbour’s fence both count.

Ask which of the two comes more naturally to you, and then do a small piece of the other. The attempt tends to sharpen the one you already favour.