In between his poetry, journalism, and deciphering of the grand mystery that is Abraham Lincoln, Carl Sandburg also made the occasional attempt to figure out what is this thing called writing.

In one of his more insightful pieces, “Trying to Write,” he looked back at the time he interviewed Babe Ruth (because it was the 1920s and that was what journalists of his stature could do and then humble-brag about later). Sandburg asks the Bambino what it’s like to always have people seek his system for hitting home runs. Ruth responds:

… all I can tell ‘em is I pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell ‘em I don’t know except it looked good.

Which is maybe some of the greatest writing advice around. Don’t worry about how it looked good, just make sure you can identify it when it happens.