Sometimes it is. It happens to all of us.
Of course that means that sometimes it’s good. But it’s the bad moments you remember – the ones when you’re not so sure you should be putting words on the page at all. In fact, many of the writers I work with carry around fear that their writing will be bad – and that fear prevents them from writing.
So what’s a would-be writer to do? Write!
Stare the fear in the face and tell your story: the one that you’re obsessed with, the one that keeps you up at night. Tell the story that makes you howl with laughter or the one that makes you cry. Tell it and tell it again. That’s how you get better. Telling your story requires that you show up at the page.
But when? And how much? I don’t necessarily subscribe to the 10,000 hour theory. I don’t insist that writers show up a prescribed number of hours per day or days per week. But I do believe in consistency: your version of it. You’ve got to jump in and do it – somehow, somewhere. That’s the only way to improve. And it helps to let go of perfectionism and to let the work unfold. It helps to trust the process of writing.
I was talking this week with someone in the midst of my 30 Day Writing Challenge. She was delighted. A new found sense of discipline had made its way into her writing routine. She was creative more of the time – thinking about writing and writing much more. And showing up in that way made her feel better.
In the waning days of 2015, don’t you owe it to yourself and your writing to dig in? Take the challenge, if that appeals to you. Or cultivate your own method of finding a writing groove.
Because if we all have bad writing moments, we can be sure that rewriting has the potential to turn those moments around. Lean into the work and celebrate the progress along the way.
