What It Takes

Writing is hard. A simple statement but a very true one as any of you writers out there can acknowledge. There is the whole craft of writing itself that is just plain difficult. You start out with a story that seems to evolve no matter how you plan it and as you get pulled into it, it really gets hard to look at it objectively, to see the grammatical errors, the plot holes, the two-dimensional characters—if there are any of these things, as well as a whole lot of other possible issues.

As I’ve watched my second son grow in his 2-3 weeks of life and my toddler learn time in again, I can’t help but draw a parallel between my sons’ resiliency and that of a writer. Not only must a writer learn the craft, but they must learn to navigate the publishing industry, learn to take the bad reviews with the good, learn to take criticism with praise and learn to please their readers while remaining true to themselves and their stories. They must be resilient to survive. Some writers are able to do this better than others, some are naturally more skilled or write more commercially acceptable stories and therefore don’t have as much hardship to navigate, but overall, most writers must overcome these and/or other obstacles at some time or other.

My words today are fact and I don’t have any sort of advice on how to avoid these unwanted experiences, but I will tell you writers to hang on in there. Don’t give up and for those criticisms or opinions you do receive, take them for what they are in many cases, a gift to help you improve. You do have what it takes to be a writer!

Good luck and happy writing this week!

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life