Writing is Hard

Writing is so hard I don’t even want to write the blog post about how hard it is. They say if you find work you enjoy, you’ll never have to work a day in your life, and I’m sorry, but that’s total crap. Some of my favorite authors and podcasters say that true passion takes a lot of work and the days are not always easy. You have to work through the tedious and write through the pain. It sucks. But it’s so worth it.

So I’m not sure if you were aware, but this blog is not my only writing venture. I think it’s clear I’m not primarily something else, like a climber or a minimalist, who just blogs on the side. I’m primarily a writer, which is why this blog has several different nonsensical categories about anything and everything. I write. I’m a writer. Basically this blog is just a way to make sure I’m at least writing one thing once a week. But of course, that’s not nearly enough and apparently you’re supposed to write every single day. In fact, every successful writer I’ve ever heard speak has told me to write every single day. And that’s just insane, okay.

They all talk about their daily routine that starts at 5 a.m. if it must, just so they can get an hour of writing in before they start their day. They brew their coffee and just sit at their computer for a solid hour with no other distractions. They silence their phones, turn off their WiFi, and, according to one book I skimmed, tell all their friends they are out of the country so they won’t be interrupted. They open up their current project and their journal and they write on one or the other for the entire 60 minutes. Or they just stare at their screen until words come out. Or they write nonsensical gibberish until something normal comes out. They write thousands of words or just a haiku, but they write every day. They make progress. They accomplish something.

And some days that is just crazy to me. Some days, there is absolutely no inspiration or motivation and I don’t know what to write or how I would write it. But, if I were to wait for inspiration to strike, I would only write every other week and in the middle of taking a shower. The key is to build habits and write through the uninspirational times until you’ve got a good flow going.

My problem is that I have so many ideas. I have outlines and character backgrounds and plot maps and prompt lists and countless unfinished Google Docs. The ideas become so huge that there creates so much pressure to actually begin the writing. Or as soon as I hit my stride in writing on a project, I get an idea for another project and have to start on that right away before I lose the idea.

The whole point of this blog post was not to offer any advice, I’m sorry to tell you. This was just a way for me to complain and also write something for today and also let you know that I have some cool things in the works (if I ever make actual progress on them) and also ask advice from any fellow writers. I’ve now been in quarantine for two weeks and I haven’t really been writing at all, and I think I need to start forming better habits.