Writing is one of the most amazing things. We writers sit down with a vague idea, or maybe no ideas at all, and some time later we come back with an entire universe trapped in the pages of a book. With nothing more than our minds and a computer, we can craft people worlds, adventures, tragedies that will bring tears to the eyes, and laugh out loud comedy. Ten different writers can sit down with the same idea and come back with ten different stories. Writing is magic.
But it also isn’t.
Writing is one of the most difficult things. We writers sit down with a vague idea, or no ideas at all, and some time later we’re still sitting there, head in hands, trying to will the right words, or any words to come to us. Sometimes our creative minds don’t want to cooperate, and we spend all our time just scrolling aimlessly through Twitter trying to dredge up enough motivation and inspiration to drag ourselves back to writing our books. Writing is hard.
Sometimes writing is chasing after your characters and struggling to keep up with the rate of their adventures and sometimes writing is putting one dogged word after the other. Sometimes it’s pounding out ten thousand words in a day, and sometimes it’s cranking out a hundred words in the evening when you’d rather be doing anything else. Sometimes writing is aesthetics and tweetable quotes, and sometimes it’s a seventh cup of coffee late at night to keep your eyes open long enough to finish the scene you’re stuck in.
It’s easy to despair when you’re in the hardest parts of writing. It’s easy think that you’re never going to cut it as a writer. It’s easy to think that you’re never going to make it to the end, or that you might not love this book any more, because how could something you love so much be so hard to create? It’s easy to think that those golden moments where writing is perfect and the act of creation feels like magic, is ‘real writing’, and the darker times are when we fail. But that’s not true.
The truth is, writing is magic. And it’s also not. It’s both the good times when everything is easy and fun, and the hard times when you’re struggling through a mire of self-doubt and creative block. The writing you do when it’s most difficult has just as much value as any you when the words are coming naturally. Writing is both easy and hard. It’s the best thing and also the most difficult. That’s the nature of writing. Just because someone is in a golden state of magic doesn’t make them a better writer than you. And just because you’ve been stuck in the tough times for a while doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever. You will find the magic again. It’s the law of writing.
Writing is magic, but it also isn’t. There are good times. There are hard times. But through it all, we have to keep on writing. The only constant in writing is the words you put down on the paper, whether they flow out in a golden rush, or a stumbling mess. You are writing. You are creating. And in the end, your determination and perseverance is the real magic.
How do you keep going when writing becomes difficult? Are you in a ‘writing is magic’ time right now, or a ‘writing is hard’ moment? Let’s chat!
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