Trusting the Process: Where True Writing Begins
And where we go wrong.
For me, the greatest turning point any writer could hope to experience is when the pain of not telling their stories hurts greater than walking away from it.
Motivation does not need to come in a positive form to spur action, sometimes facing the finite of it all, coming to terms with the time we’ve wasted not pursuing something we’re passionate about, can work just as effectively if not more.
Despite that, good or bad, motivation can be fickle and can abandon us when we most want it.
Instead, the one true anchor we should focus our attention on is our process.
Without it, our stories would perish, untold, and unuttered to the world.
Our process keeps us in the game, where we want to come back time and time again to create our lives work.
The Amateur’s Journey
For a long time, I felt like a fraud calling myself a writer, mostly because I lacked the consistency of one, and treated it as a casual hobby more than anything.
There was no commitment, no drive, and my enthusiasm to write changed with the wind.
I’d hold off writing in anticipation for that day, or that week when I finally could get my act together, naively believing that the future held all the answers for me to get myself going.
When those days came, I would be exhausted, uninspired, and crushed by the massive expectation I had put on these salvation days holding all the answers. But they never did.
It’s an amazing idea to think of the answers that the future may hold, but really the stars rarely align and the world was not built on intentions. I needed something more concrete, more tangible, I needed something to keep me locked in, where I didn’t feel like a fraud and that I was indeed a writer.
Finding my Process
Funnily enough, I found my writing process through productive procrastination.
Now I know I just said that the stars rarely align, call it superstition or naivety, but I find the best processes happen when you tie it into your everyday routine.
Before I even properly start the day or even think about writing, I like to sort my mind and body out first. This comes under the guise of exercising, going for a walk, meditating, and sometimes (weirdly enough) having ice baths to properly prime me for a writing session. Normally it takes me 3 to 4 hours on most days to do so, but by getting the worst things and the things that play on my mind the most out of the way, whether real or perceived, I feel I am better able to get out of my own way to produce better writing.
Writing can be a soul-crushing endeavor, that’s why I think it’s important to hang my hat of self-esteem on a few things, so that when I am having an off-day, then at least I can attach my self-worth with other accomplishments that day, whether exercising, walking my relationships or work.
By going to war with Resistance as Steven Pressfield calls it, and accumulating small victories throughout the morning, I am better able to let the writing flow through me, rather than grinding my teeth and inconveniently picking my writing sessions as an ideal time to answer life’s more existential questions!
Having a few wins against Resistance, I am better placed to download the words I am searching for.
I like to go to the source of my Resistance, rather than dealing with its symptoms.
In the morning, Resistance is at its peak, (more so on leg day!), so I like to get my exercise out of the way first.
Resistance can be quite a deceptive creature when I’m really not feeling it, like a Trojan horse pouncing on my weaknesses, ready for me to succumb to its will. It can tell me I need a day off from writing, that I should relax and take it easy. It’s only later on do I feel I’ve been thwarted and realized that it got me again *shakes fist*.
That’s the thing with Resistance is that if we let it gain momentum, it can become harder to overcome, whereas if we start strong and deliberate in our approach, it barely puts up a fight.
Momentum is the only way we can win, whether cultivated at the moment or accumulated.
To me, meditation is the ultimate primer to tuning myself to what behavior or goal I want to achieve for that day. It’s a time to slow down your racing mind and anxious feeling and ‘un-become’ everything you feel compelled to be, to just being in the moment, so that when I write, I’m in a better state of receptivity to download the words I’m looking for.
The Battle of the Individual Artist
We misperceive a force that is universal and impersonal and instead see it as individual and personal- Steven Pressfield
The battle with Resistance may feel like it's unique only to us, but the reality is we’re all battling it through our own processes.
Dalton Trumbo liked to write while in a bath with a cigar.
Maya Angelou liked to rent a hotel room in every town she ever lived in and visited that room every morning to do her writing.
Hunter S. Thompson allegedly did not begin writing until his insatiable cocaine appetite was quenched.
There is no right or wrong. The ultimate determiner of how effective a writing process comes down to what a writer can realistically adhere to in the long term.
As much as motivation helps, it’s the consistency that will best equip us to stay in the battle with Resistance.
Confronting Resistance has not been an easy feat, and mostly, it’s done well in its efforts to keep me away from my writing. Having taken the time to grow in self-awareness, I’ve developed and honed my writing process to one that is suited to me.
I may not be undefeated with Resistance, but slowly and surely I’m accumulating more wins where it matters.
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