News Flash: Writing is Hard

If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do. — William Zinsser

Captain Obvious just flew by to deliver me a message: having a written outline, a grand vision, and all the enthusiasm in the world won't make you want to write.

This ridiculous urge that some of us get — this madness that most people call "wanting to be a writer" — is probably one of the greatest and dumbest things anybody could want to do. I've sat like a lump for the better part of 48 hours accomplishing absolutely nothing … and this after I wrote just a few days ago about the importance of setting goals and wanting to write 4 books this year. Hypocritical much?

But there's no help for it. When the story is fresh in your mind, when you're excited about wanting to create something and you can see it bright and clear in your mind, sometimes the words can STILL feel like squeezing water from a stone, while other times the book will practically write itself. Some people talk about accomplishing 10,000 words in a day. If I accomplish that in a week, it's been a really, REALLY good week.

I can't honestly say or ever be sure if fantasy authors have it any better or worse than other genres. We can spin worlds out of whole cloth that have little possibility of ever existing on this world or any other. On the other hand, sometimes it's that very act of creation that's so difficult, in my personal opinion. I did so much research for my new series a couple of weeks ago that I'm still seeing Google results in my sleep.

There's one quote I know of, supposedly from Hemmingway, who said something along the lines of "Writing's the easiest thing in the world. All I do is sit in front of my typewriter and bleed over it." Another quote from Red Smith says something similar: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and open a vein." Whether they're both real quotes or not isn't my concern for the sake of this message. What needs to be said is this: wanting to write is hard. Damned hard. You force yourself to write some nights — most nights, maybe — because if you don't keep moving forward you'll want to sit, and mope, and criticize your work.

And that is the real, true death of any story: when we sacrifice it on the altar of our own Self-Doubt.

So keep moving forward. Keep sitting yourself down, every day if you have to, and write.