Writers Have Great Days and Sucky Days
An inside scoop of what gets me through
How many times have you written something and thought, wow this one is good!
Secretly you are hoping others will like it too.
Yet that piece only sits there while chipmunks roast acorns over a charcoal grill.
This can be discouraging and a bit depressing.
Being a writer has ups and downs.
As a writer I have great days and sucky days. The latter seems to paint gloom and doom and amplifies my inner critic. On those days it is best for me to change up the scene and go for a walk, scrub grout, caulk everything, bake, dance in the kitchen or simply take a nap.
On particularly focused days more cups of tea and coffee grow cold. I’m also extra absent minded; the creamer ends up in the pantry and eggs in the freezer. Dinners get burnt while poems get birthed. I forget I have children. The cat gets his own snackage.
However, those days when I’m in the zone and the characters are right there with me — I am them and they are me. Nothing else matters. The stories bud me as if I were a tree.
When things don’t flow or too much is flowing
Being a writer isn’t easy. It can be utterly discouraging and depressing when a piece we are working on doesn’t click and the flow isn’t there. The sentences blur together.
For me, I often have too many thoughts and can’t seem to stay with one but simultaneously write about them all.
My sticky notes have sticky notes.
Why, what and how we write
As a writer we tell ourselves it is because we love it and we do, but there’s also this hope that maybe someday we will be successful.
A piece we write, a novel we’ve birthed or a book of poems we’ve channeled — will be that viral sapling turned to a brilliant stunning evergreen forest dotting the shelves of millions.
While some pieces fly out in under an hour or less there are others that don’t.
Some of my so-called ‘better pieces’ are shorter, raw, vulnerable and therefore very real. Those are the ones I cry-write. It’s a curse.
There are others where I’m outraged about injustices and wear my soul inside out.
Some writes are lighter and therefore easier to express joy bubbles.
Usually, when completely exhausted, I have bouts of humor and there’s no amount of duct tape to harness what I’ll write.
Final takeaways because I know you are busy
#1 Write what you know and feel but also explore other possibilities and research. Teach yourself something new and write about it.
#2 Quality is more important than quantity.
#3 Good days will happen but so will sucky days.
#4 Don’t compare yourself to another writer’s style or success.
#5 Give yourself permission to take breaks.
#6 Write as often as you need to. There isn’t a magic formula.
#7 Learn from your mistakes.
#8 Keep writing.
Thank you for reading!
Carolyn Riker, MA, LMHC, is a psychotherapist and author of three books. Her latest is My Dear, Love Hasn’t Forgotten You. If you’d like, follow her on Facebook at Carolyn Riker, MA, LMHC or Instagram.