Busting Writer Myths: Writing is Easy

Can we just laugh about this for a second?

Haha- no. Writing is not easy. Anyone who's ever written anything- from a school essay to a four hundred thousand word novel- knows how hard it is to write anything. It's amazing that people do it every day. I don't know how I do it every day (Except Sundays. Day of rest.), and I should be to scream at the top of my lungs that THIS CRAFT ISN'T FREAKING EASY.

And to anyone who would ever say that writing is easy: I don't know what you're doing, but it's not proper writing. It can't be. Writing ain't easy, sucker.

Seriously, though, don't be fooled by the quotes out there that say all writers must love writing. I'm pretty sure every writer in the world has had maybe even a week or two at a time where they hated writing. I've hit those patches myself, and trust me, they'll make you wonder why in the world you're still doing this. You'll wonder if you're even a real writer if you hate what you're doing.

I mean, if the feeling doesn't go away after a couple years or something, maybe the area isn't for you. But it should go away after a little while if it's just a normal case of writer's discouragement.

I'm no psychologist, but I think the reason this happens is just because you've hit a rough patch in the story. This happens to everyone. There might not be big enough stakes or enough tension at the point in the story you've hit. Those problems are easy enough to solve. The whole novel could even be your problem. It might not be working. That's happened to me before, and believe me, writing it made me feel like so:

The novel's finished now, but I have plans to edit it within an inch of its life.

And here's a hint: If your discouragement lasts for several months at a time, try something different with your writing. Take a break from your WIP (which means Work In Progress, in case you didn't know) and try a few writing prompts. Write a poem. Maybe you could even try starting a different novel and working on that for a little while. Confession: If I'm only working on one project at a time, I go nuts. I can't function. So normally I have three going at a time. NaNoWriMo is the only exception to this. But seriously, try anything so long as it gives you a break from the project that might not be working and is getting you down.

So yeah. Writing is anything but a walk through a bunny-filled meadow, but all of us writers keep doing it. So here's an interesting question: Why the hey do we keep doing it? If any other job was this frustrating (not to mention mentally and emotionally exhausting), sane humans would quit. Why don't we quit?

The answer's easy: We don't quite because there are days where we love it. The days where it's like actually prying off your own fingernails with a pair of fire tongs are nothing compared to the days where you feel like you're on top of the world. We write for the times when the words are flowing out of us like tears out of the eyes of anime girls, the characters that are so real we could hug them, the worlds that we would cut off our own arms to get a chance to live in, and the delicious weight of the manuscript in our hands. That's the rush of the writer's life, and I love it.

At least, I love it until the next time I have a bad day. Then I'll despise the writer's life with a vengeance.

If this post discouraged you any further, worry not! I have a post coming that is titled exactly the opposite of this one- Busting Writer Myths: Writing is Hard. Look out for that! See you then!

Now, don't mind me as I give you the links for my Instagram and Twitter. It might irritate you when I do this, but guess what: I actually want you to follow me on these platforms! I post things there that you, as a writer, should find pretty funny, and I think you'd like it. So please follow me on my Instagram and my Twitter, and be sure to say hi!