Today’s question comes from Rachel and it’s a good one. You can definitely feel her angst and, boy, can I relate.
I just feel so stuck. Why is writing so stupidly hard now?
I’ve never written an editable book before, so I keep second guessing myself. “This isn’t working. But nothing else ever worked either…” and then three hours later I’ve watched enough YouTube to rot four brains and done nothing other than contemplate the difficulty.
I feel like I should just start, but how can I begin when opening the doc initiates a staring contest with Dread?
Thanks for listening.
No need to reply.
Who hasn’t fallen head first into the trap that is second-guessing? I don’t know a single author who avoids it altogether.
We second guess our story and our skill level. We question the decisions we’ve made and the words we’ve chosen. If it can be doubted, a writer finds a way to make it happen. It comes with having an active internal life and it’s absolutely normal. For so many reasons:
- We’re comparing our first drafts to the finished products of other authors.
- We’re underestimating just how bad a first draft can be and still be edited to a shine.
- We’re assuming that every writing session SHOULD add words or content to our story.
- We’re unconvinced that our talent or skill level can produce a good story.
- We’re operating from a place of exhaustion.
While each of our reasons may require some reassessing and truth grasping, let me say this:
One of the most important skills an author must master is turning off the noise. This skill is not only necessary now, but it will be necessary for as long as we’re penning tales for public consumption.
Some of the noise comes from inside our heads and some comes from outside.
Turning off the internet while you’re working is step one. That hurts, I know. But how is anyone supposed to be comfortable fumbling through a rough draft while other authors are showing off their finished, for-sale products on social media? It’s impossible.
Our writing time is only as sacred as we allow it to be. If we’re inviting Youtube videos and the accomplishments of others to hang out while we attempt to be brilliant, we’ll continuously feel inadequate. It’s hard enough to shut out all the things we did and saw and rocked out to yesterday, much less push through the noise we’re inviting into our writing caves today.
It takes discipline. And perhaps, just maybe, that’s the takeaway from these current writing sessions. That nothing will make it on the page without this first simple, very difficult action: decide your writing time is too precious to share with even a single distraction.
Once you’ve done that, you know what to do next, Rachel. You said so yourself: you just start.
I don’t know what state your story is in, but here’s what I’d suggest:
- Read back the most recent chapter or scene you’ve written and then
- Brainstorm a list of your next few scenes (or next scene if you can only see that far ahead) and then
- Set a timer for twenty minutes and JUST WRITE.
- Take a five minute break to refill your drink and go again. Twenty minutes with no editing, no second guessing. Just get words on the page and then
- Do it again.
Three sprints like this will net you an hour of focused writing. Not necessarily GOOD writing, but that’s not the goal of a draft. The goal is to get the story out of your head and onto the page. GOOD is the goal of editing and that’s for later.
If you’re trying to rebuild your writing stamina, this may be as far as you get the first day and that’s okay. In fact, it’s amazing. If you want to go back and review what you’ve written, do it now or before you start your next session, but while you’re drafting I suggest allowing yourself to only reread your most recent scenes and chapters. Rereading EVERYTHING every time you sit down to write will slow your momentum and suck out your soul. Trust me.
Right now you’re drafting. And drafting is best done at a sprint.
I hope that helped, Rachel. Anyone else struggle with doubts and outside noise? Any advice from the trenches?
Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.
Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.
It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.
To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.
For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Really good advice! Love how you say, “decide your writing time is too precious to share with even a single distraction.” I pretty much don’t watch anything anymore, because time is so short and there’s so much to read/ write. I think my main struggle is balancing my novel writing time with my blogging time, because both are very important to me.
keturahskorner.blogspot.com
I’m often guilty of running away from my story when writing seems daunting. Outside noise is just a means to do that.
To press past the block, I sometimes interrupt my story with a horde of stampeding gerbils. My characters must stop everything they’re doing (or not doing) to survive this catastrophe. It starts me typing. Pokes fun at my seriousness. And encourages me with the truth that the gerbil apocalypse is the worst writing, hands down, I could do that day.
Okay, that is absolutely brilliant and I laughed out loud. Next time I get stuck I think I know what I’m going to do…
I love it. I think I just might borrow it. It also seems like a great way to get to know your characters. Attempting to survive the gerbil apocalypse can reveal a lot about a person.
Hope the critters serve you both well! ;0)
Some great tips! Thanks for sharing!
This post is very encouraging! It’s nice to know there are other writers who struggle with the same thing I do. It can be very hard to focus solely on your writing and not let other things distract you, but it definitely helps to just write furiously for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, like you said.
“Our writing time is only as sacred as we allow it to be. ” Oh my goodness, Shan. Yes, so true. The other one that jumped out at me is what Keturah already said, “Decide your writing time is too precious to share with even a single distraction.” Occasionally, I’m amazing at this. Most of the time, though, I’m hopping online for “quick breaks” (Uh, like now…)
I relate. You know what though? I think I’ll go write right now. I told myself I’d finish a scene that I’ve been stuck on for weeks today, and now I think I will. Thanks for the motivation everyone!
I really enjoyed your post, but thought I might have something to add to it. It might help Rachel once she gets rolling, and Rachel, stick with it and you will get rolling!
What I’d like to add is, don’t throw anything out!
I recently finished my first novel and I confess that along the way there were many times I thought “this really stinks and I should just throw the whole thing in the trash!”
Don’t do it!
Let me tell you something: My writing did stink, but now I’ve edited it several times, I think it’s kind of okay. It’s out with beta readers and I hope to begin submitting to agents in the next two weeks.
Keeping your work even when it’s so bad you rip in out and store it in a file labeled “trash” may be more help than you realize because there were a dozen times I thought “What was that bit I tore out and stuck in another file, it would really work here,” or “I have to open the old version of this chapter and get the wording out of it for the prophecy.”
If you have those things when you want them, it helps keep you going.
This is wonderful advice!
But just something that may or may not be at all relevant here – if writing isn’t the only thing that’s become suddenly hard, and Shannon’s suggestions for achieving writing discipline aren’t working, it’s possible a mental health screening may be helpful. It’s normal to have negative self-talk and procrastinate as a writer, but if it feels really difficult to control, and it hasn’t always, then something else may be going on. I don’t know if that’s the case, but just thought it was worth mentioning.
But thanks Shannon for these tips! Still getting used to writing at a sprint, but it can feel really freeing to just write and be in the moment with it.
I really need to follow these tips! I think I will start by not watching YouTube and start brainstorming.
This is EXACTLY what I needed to read. I’ve been wandering around my house wishing that I could be writing but too afraid to actually do it, then sporadically returning to the computer and staring blankly at the screen. Finally I decided to head over to GTW and see if there were any new posts, and POW. Thanks so much, Shannon!