Things I Struggle With As A Writer

Being a writer comes with its own unique set of challenges. Whether it’s finding time to write in, or struggling against the allure of social media, I think every writer has something that they have to fight against in their own writing lives. I know I do. Today I thought it might be fun to share some of the things that I struggle with personally as a writer.

Sticking To One Project

I’ve written a lot of different books since I first started writing. i don’t know the exactly number, but it’s somewhere around 20 at this point. That’s a lot of writing first drafts, and not a lot of editing, to be honest. I realise that editing is important, and I’ve certainly tried to stick to working on a single project at a time and finishing that instead of continually exploring brand new ideas. But those shiny new ideas are just so enticing. At least I’m not going to run out of books to work on, right?

Outlining

It has come as a bit of a recent revelation to me that I actually work really well with an outline. It’s nice to be able to sit down to work every day and know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, and to see the whole story arc before I put a thousand hours into writing it. However, the actual act of outlining is where I have trouble. I’m a chronic pantser. I don’t want to sit there and plan. I want to be writing the story for real, not figuring out the individual steps and organising them so that my plot actually makes sense.

Writer’s Guilt

As far as my writing habits go, I strive to do even a little writing every single day. It helps me stay in touch with the book, make consistent progress, and honestly, writing just feels good. So when I have days where I can’t write because of scheduling issues, outside problems, or the words just aren’t there, I tend to feel very guilty about my inability to follow through with my daily writing practice. It feels like failure, even when the circumstances are beyond my control. I just want to write, ok?

Letting Go

At some point, you have to let your writing go, whether that means pressing send on a blog post, mailing a draft to beta readers, or calling a book or story ‘finished’. There’s such a temptation to keep working on it forever, polishing and editing and reworking it until that mythical day when it’s perfect. I always struggle with letting my writing to go other people in particular, whether that’s my beta readers, who are the greatest at fixing my book problem, or handing my finished book off to reviewers, and the reading public. It’s terrifying every single time, and a definite struggle I have to overcome at each step in the process.

These are just some of the things I personally struggle with as a writer, but I would love to hear from you. What are some of your writerly struggles? Do you have any of the same ones as me? What is the scariest thing about writing for you? What’s the best thing?

Speaking of writing and books, my debut novel The Crystal Tree comes out in exactly a week, on August 1st. Read more about it here. And add it to your Goodreads bookshelf in anticipation!