The Dubious Joys of Writing
Writing is hard.
No, seriously. It is. In fact, I think it’s probably the hardest thing I’ll ever do. Well, outside of attempting to maintain some semblance of sanity while helping raise five kids. That’s pretty damn difficult, believe it or not.
But back to the original topic. Writing is an immense feat. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fought the urge to just toss a grenade onto a chapter and be done with it. Why?
Because writing is hard!
It is almost impossible to come up with an original idea. Correction, let’s face it; it is impossible to come up with an original idea. Everything has already been written in one form or another. Lord knows this is true for the motorcycle club, billionaire and stepbrother categories!
Also, we won’t talk about how hard it is to read and not add aspects of those novels into your own work. You’re stuck on your chapter, you read a book and bam! – Inspiration! But wait…oh no. How much is your idea and how much did you just take from another author’s hard work. It’s a conundrum that can leave you crippled in plagiarism fear, rocking in a corner somewhere sucking your thumb.
Then there’s my personal favorite. Yes, it’s the dreaded plot bunny rearing its ugly head! You know the one; you’re in the middle of writing one thing and a completely different story comes to you. It’s a small miracle any story ever gets completed.
Now let’s talk about every author’s greatest fear. You guessed it; Writer’s Block. (cue the dramatic music) Nothing is worse than sitting down to write and suddenly you have no idea what a word is, let alone put it down on paper.
All thoughts and ideas just *poof!* disappear. You then proceed to sit there and stare at that blank page that mocks you. And despite how hard you may battle it, the struggle is real. Writer’s block sucks. Anyone who says it doesn’t exist has obviously never spent hours endeavoring to make some sort of sentence come together when the creative process has abandoned you to go play somewhere that has drinks with little umbrellas and a sexy cabana boy to rub lotion on it as it suntans.
Yeah, it’s that bad. It’s not pretty, and I’ve seen some fairly brutal episodes take place with it. It’s enough to make you want to run and hide. Or possibly crawl under a rock, quietly sob and swear that you’re never going to write again.
I never said that it easy to watch.
Eventually all of this will resolve itself and you complete your masterpiece! The next Great American Novel has been created. At least, that’s what it feels like.
But you’re not done!
No, not done by a long shot. Nope. You still have to edit that book you just sweat over. Ah yes, that great moment where you take your baby, that amazing masterpiece, and stare at it. It’s time to remove words, hack them out from existence. Those same words you just slaved and fought for must now go away. The problem here is, as a writer, to you every word is golden nugget of pure genius. Why would you want to destroy such beauty?
It sucks. Each syllable that you toss out is like stabbing yourself in the chest. You’ll spend hours staring at the screen, picking through every word trying to determine what can go and what can stay.
How can things be reworded? How does one change that sentence to make it shorter and still pack a punch? Why did I ever think that paragraph actually sounded okay when I originally wrote it? These are the thoughts racing through your mind as you painstakingly edit your novel.
After going though all of this, the heartache, the headaches, tears, frustration…you now have an actual, real novel! Finally done, complete and edited to perfection, it is ready to go to the masses to be enjoyed. Such an accomplishment at that point. And then you remember a small detail that you had forgotten: you now have to face critiques and reviews. Oh, yay.
Yes, writing is hard!
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