Are you a writer that struggles?
I don’t know who needs to hear this but if it can inspire at least one person it's more than enough for me
I started writing when I was too young I don’t even remember. Maybe third or fourth grade, back in elementary school. All I remember as a child is that I loved reading by my window while all the other kids where playing outside. I was constantly thinking of new stories and finding different things and ways I needed to write them down. By the middle of high-school I knew I wanted to be a writer. My imagination was so… much that it leaked out of my mind and bled through my pen on the paper of thousands of notebooks I had instead of CDs or whatever normal teenagers have in a pile.
My only need was to write, yet I couldn’t ever finish something... If you are a writer you know how it goes. I remember reading somewhere that 90% of writers NEVER finish a single book...
If it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it. Unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don’t do it. If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don’t do it. If you’re doing it for money or fame, don’t do it. *
I started my first real novel idea when I was 15 and it was torturing me for 8 whole years. I kept writing and rewriting. Changing and re-changing. Killing characters and bringing new ones in… Most of you know the struggle. Then I quit cause I’m a quitter. But for the next two years that I didn’t write anything, the untold stories were always piling up in my head and I felt I couldn’t stop it...
So I started writing again, another story this time... I was aiming big, not just a story or a novel, nope... A whole series of books. And that right after I got my daughter. You can imagine how difficult this time is for a person to find time or clear his thoughts to actually write…
If you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don’t do it. If it’s hard work just thinking about doing it, don’t do it. If you’re trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. If you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. If it never does roar out of you, do something else. *
I set myself goals because I love working on deadlines. I don’t know what inspired me so much about that story but I finished the first draft of the first book (50K) in less than 100 days writing about 40 minutes or less a day, only when my daughter was napping. But I did it! I was officially in the 10% that had completed something.
Then I rested for a while and started the second one. Yeah, you get it right… I skipped editing and all, because I wanted to finish all 3 or 4 books and edit them all together... Good idea, right? #not.
Don’t be like so many writers, don’t be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, don’t be dull and boring and pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-love. The libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. Don’t add to that. *
So, I finished the second book too (45K), within 100 days, hooray. And then guess what? I got bored of the story. Can you believe it?
If you’re not excited to write it, no one will be excited to read it.
I think I’m going back to those stories one day but what I am most grateful for is that writing them made me feel sure of myself… That now I know what is easy for me and how to find time to write and follow the steps that will make me finish what I start. "Don’t start what you can’t finish" someone said once and I can’t forget it.
My last huge accomplishment started as a note to my phone with a story idea I had out of nowhere one day. And turned to 33K words written AND translated AND edited, in 17 days (!!!), on my phone, with a toddler that doesn’t even nap. It might not sound much and practically is not even a novel but for me it’s something really huge to actually finish it completely and get it to the point that other people take it from you (beta readers, editors, publishers, etc)
So, if you have this dream to be a writer but you struggle start believing in yourself more and believe in what you do. Because what you do matters! It may affect just one person but if it does, it means that is the most important job you have to do. And that person can be you, so it’s already something big. If you want to try something new, don’t hesitate. If you love writing keep writing. If I can do it, you can do it!
When it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. There is no other way. and there never was. *