You know what they don’t say about writing? That it sucks.
I don’t want to write today. Am I going to though? Fuck yes I am. Does that mean I’m going to want to write tomorrow? Who the fuck knows. See I read a lot of authors, bloggers, and other writer types talk about what you need to do as a writer (which is fucking write, big surprise) but I don’t see many of them say how they get their ass in the chair and do that. Some days I sit in my chair and don’t write a single word, I read and reread over and over what I’ve already written. Sometimes I back track and delete shit. Only to put it back and then swear up and down the page because it’s fucking frustrating. And yeah, I fuck around on facebook other socials, who doesn’t?
Other days I can sit in my chair from dawn until dusk and my fingers never leave the keyboard. How does that happen? What’s the difference in that day from the other? What am I doing differently that I can get so focused like that
Guess, what, NOT A DAMN THING.
I do the same thing that day as I did the day before, get up, drop off my kid, have my coffee and breakfast, send the hubby to work and then sit my ass down. So what the hell? Why am I more productive one day and not the next? What’s the SECRET??
There is not one, there is not a secret. For me, it comes down to the one thing a lot of writers are screaming that you CAN’T rely on.
If your words and your imagination and your story doesn’t excite and inspire you, then you will fizzle and burn out. BUT, I will tell you that it isn’t the end of you or your ideas.
A lot of times I find it hard to connect the dots (or plots, as I like to call it) between some really cool or interesting story aspects. Like I had an idea for a dramatic event regarding a character in one of my stories that I LOVED and could not WAIT to write. So I wrote it in advance, then I had a struggle getting from where I was at currently in the story to that scene.
And it was sooooo fucking boring!
There was a lot of mundane shit I had to add to get them there logically and to make sense in the story and I hated every minute of writing it.
Did it make sense? Yeah I tied it all together.
Was it relevant? Yeah most of it was actually pretty important information.
Did you just info dump? Maybe a little but that’s not ALWAYS a bad thing if you practice doing it right.
Long story short, there will be parts of your writing that you will LOATHE, you will just want to cuss at it and every word you type will make you SICK. You feel like it’s just word vomit on the page.
You do not have to love every word you write. Just as long as you get that story out and then you can work on chipping away the unrefined parts in editing. I honestly wish I had been able to find something that said all this before I just jumped in. Not loving all of the writing process made me feel like I wasn’t doing it right, and all the people (well most) were saying that writers block isn't’ a thing.
I’m sick of hearing that. That it isn’t “real”, because it is, it’s just different for different people. Just because some people don’t get that or don’t have that problem or don’t struggle with it doesn’t mean the rest of us that DO are just making it up, or are delusional.
Because it was real for me, and still is. I just didn’t understand early on that I was the block and now I do. Now I know how to get around myself and my writing has gotten better because of that.
Give yourself some slack cuz, you’ll get there too
