Writing is Hard!
Part of my job as a book coach is to help keep writers accountable. Life always gets in the way. Jobs, family, children, parents. But the minutia of life also gets in the way: having space to write, losing power on your one and only writing night, a (well-deserved) vacation that upends your writing schedule, an unexpected trip to the doctor’s office… And that’s not counting the emotional pitfalls: is my writing good enough? Would anyone even care if I finish? Why am I doing this? (spoiler alert: YES! Your writing is good enough—it may not be perfect, but that’s why you work at your craft. YES! People care if you finish—I care! Why are you doing this? Because you have a story to tell!)
It’s no wonder so many of us find it easier to push off our writing than find the time/energy/resources to write. Sometimes stopping (or not yet starting) is the only manageable away, and that’s okay.
But sometimes we forget about the deeper reason we stop: writing is HARD! It’s a challenge to get all the pieces onto the page, then sort them into the right order with the right words, spoken by the right characters. We’re fooled into thinking it’s easy because what we read often seems effortless—but that’s because those books are finished products!
When you’re wishing to metaphorically (or literally) bury your head under a pillow rather than write, remind yourself it’s not you. It’s the job. Writing is just hard.