Writing Isn't Easy

http://allwritefictionadvice.blogspot.kr/2014/01/writing-isnt-easy.html

Like the blog post linked above says, it is a very common misconception that writing is something 'easy'. This is a phrase I take with a great amount of amusement and my muse takes with a passionate tirade at the ready. That being said, please grant me a minute to take some... preemptive measures.

Alright, now that I've sorted out that little mess, time to get serious with this blog post.

Yes, writing is hard. I might have misled some people around me with my ramblings of stories and fawning over my own characters and the sheer number of embarrassing, obsessive moments they have caught me in, but enjoyment does not mean that writing is easy.

Writing most certainly is not easy.

It is anything but easy, and moments that they are easy are normally either on a caffeine high or a new stage of sleep deprivation. Most of the time, I end up frustrated and leaning head into hands in internal agony, silenced by the fact that I am supposed to be doing other work and screaming in aggravation would draw attention to the fact that I am not in fact doing said other work.

Sometimes I end up slamming Tico closed or chucking away the pen (only if it's cheap), and walking away for a good hour or two. Sometimes days. More than once, I've fallen into insecurity about my writing style or story ideas or characterization, how my thoughts are too immature, too narrow-minded, too unfocused, etc. etc. etc. I could fill a whole hard drive with a list of the negative thoughts I have about my writing at times.

All that drama and I'm not even trying to get published yet.

Ah, the stress once I start trying, now that is a terrifying thought.

However, despite the additional stress that writing as a craft may give me, I cannot imagine giving it up. Ever. Writing is hard. It is the only thing I have ever done with my life that requires this much diligence and determination from me. People who think of writing as a pastime is another shade of passion, but the people actively seeking publication devote so much of themselves to the act that I find it amazing. I find all published authors, even if subject content is met with disapproval or notoriety, worthy of respect simply because they survived the process.

Writing is hard, and somehow that fulfills me. I want to finish my first novel of quality. I want to mail that first manuscript. I want to get that first rejection letter. Writing is hard, but that's part of the charm. The amount of heart I have to put into the words I scribe, the stories I tell, in hopes that I'll be able to make another person, even just one person just feel something, is extraordinary. I sometimes don't think I have it in me.

That's when I sit with a cup of tea and fresh strawberries or yogurt and have a long chat with my muse. That usually sorts me out and clears my head. Ah, it seems I've veered off topic. Here I was trying to elaborate on how and why writing is hard, but it's turned into a blog post about me instead.

My sincerest apologies for that.