These writers are figuring out what those who say, "I'd like to write a novel someday, if only I had the time..." will never realize:
WRITING IS HARD
It's not blithely sitting down with a pen in hand and scribbling out the words of the fully-formed novel that just happens to be trapped in your head. It's yanking those words out with a vice grip, agonizing over whether you should have pulled others words instead, and either shoving those words onto the page or tossing them aside and going after new ones.
Rest assured that wherever you are in your writing pursuits, you are not alone in this. Everyone from starting-the-first-book newbies to seasoned ultra-bestsellers feels exactly the same way.
These doubts can keep a writer from doing the single most important thing:
WRITE
Thankfully, there are things you can do to muffle the doubts. (You can't ever really silence them, but you can hush them enough to get some work done.)
- Embrace the crap. Let go of the idea that you're going to get this right on the first try. Even if you write a really clean first draft, there are still going to be a lot of things (from single words to whole chapters) that will change, cut, or rework in the revision process. Accept that you have to let the words out so you can fix them later.
- Find writer friends. No one but another writer will understand what you're going through, because they're going through the same things. Find someone who is at the same stage of the career as you so you can share triumphs and tragedies together. If possible, find someone you think is a better writer than you but who also thinks you're a better writer than them.
- Set a timer.Tell yourself you're only going to write for fifteen minutes. That's doable, even on the worst days, right? You will be surprised by how much you can get done in that short amount of time. And how much that will inspire you to take on another fifteen.
- Force a deadline. One of the biggest benefits of being a published author (besides all the fame and wealth, of course) is having a contractual deadline for finishing your book. As an unpublished writer, you might need to trick yourself into having a deadline. NaNo is great for this! Writing contests are good deadlines, too, but try to find ones that require a complete manuscript. And, if all else fails, set your deadline and assign someone else to make you accountable to it.
- Finish the first. The biggest boost in confidence an aspiring writer can get is to finish their very first book. Before that moment, you are just someone trying to write a book. After that moment, you are suddenly someone who has written a book! You'll never again doubt whether you have it in you to finish a book because you already have.
The bottom line is that writing doesn't get easier. You'll become a better writer with every book, but that just makes it even harder because you'll have a new, higher standard to weigh your words against. That doesn't mean you should give up (but if you can walk away from writing and never look back, then you probably should) it just means you need to get a little Zen about the doubts and use them to make your words better.
Hugs,
TLC
