Why Is Writing So Hard

Take a look at your real reasons and make writing easier.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

If writing is so hard there has to be a reason. A lot of people say if you struggle with writing or don’t enjoy it then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. If you love it, it should come easy, but does it really? Is that even true? I always thought the explanation of why writing was so tricky for me was because I wasn’t smart enough, I don’t have an MFA, and no real experience. But, when I thought about it, I realized other things are standing in my way.

Everyone is different and we have our reasons why it’s difficult. We all lead our own lives, we all have obstacles. In the end, they’re still reasons and they nevertheless make writing problematic.

If you want to write and make it a little bit easier you need to know why writing is so challenging for you. Once you know what stands in your way you can figure out how to resolve it and maybe writing will come easy for you.

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Writing Schedule

Like any job, you wouldn’t show up whenever you feel like it, do the work occasionally, and not take writing seriously. So why are you treating writing with such disregard?

I always treated writing as if it wasn’t an important job. One that I would go to 9 to 5 and just collect a paycheck and have no other interest in. Except, I wouldn’t show up for the 9 to 5, I was always calling in sick and taking vacation days. I should have been treating it like the most important job I’ve ever been hired to do. And with that comes a schedule, which I’ve never had for writing, and that may be why writing is so hard for me.

Consistency

It’s not easy to keep things up and be good at them when you don’t do them consistently. To be great at something you have to do it constantly.

I have trouble being consistent, I love a routine but once something gets thrown into the mix which screws that up then I cannot be consistent whatsoever.

Where to Start

To have a schedule you need to know what to put on the schedule, when you’re going to do it, and why you’re going to do it.

That is something I struggle with. I don’t know where to start. I feel like I’m always doing it wrong because I don’t feel I’ve been properly educated and don’t know what to do.

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Focus

For me to write I need absolute quiet, which is tough to find. Even out in the country, where I live, there are sounds; airplanes overhead, cows mooing, dogs barking, a TV on in the house, my daughter playing, my husband snoring. I wish I could write in chaos, I can’t.

DND

I don’t get my do not disturb time or respect from the people in my household to understand when I’m writing, when I am creating something, I need time to focus. I need zero distractions.

Life Stress

It’s tough to focus when you can’t stop thinking about the ordinary stresses of life. Maybe some meditation and relaxation techniques would cease my dwelling on the everyday.

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Organizing

When I sit down to think about what to write I have messy, jumbled thoughts in my head which need to be sorted through. I have so many ideas and plans, I want to do everything, and I can’t focus on just one thing or organize the entire thing.

Writing Systems

I know I learned about mind mapping, outlining, story structure, and things like that in school but I always thought those were used for writing essays. I thought I should let the creativity flow. The more I write, the more I realize I should be using these systems that I’ve never had in place before.

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Writing is tricky when you have hindrances and don’t know what to do with them. Writing is especially troublesome when you have things standing in your way and you don’t even realize they are there.

Once you make a list of what your hurdles are and why they’re happening then you can see for yourself what is holding you back.

Figure out a solution, maybe eliminate or alter the things that are making writing complicated, and find the motivation or the help you need to make writing work for you.

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Let Go and Just Write

Once I took restrictions off myself, things got easier.

I used to think I had to publish things at exactly the same time every day or forgo doing it, which in turn just made me write less, if at all, and made me publish even less. I also thought that I had to publish things in publications. I would submit and wait, and obsess, and obsess, and obsess.

Little writing got done, if at all, because all I was interested in was clicking to see if it got published, accepted, rejected, what were other people doing, what is wrong with me, why isn't my writing good enough? These things ran through my head constantly and destroyed me.

But when I published in amazing publications with a lot of subscribers, guess what happened?

My writing got less notice than when I would publish without a publication. So, I decided it didn’t matter, I didn’t need a fancy publication, I didn’t need to have the downward spiral when a publication rejected me. I didn’t need to waste my time waiting for them to take more than a week to tell me I stink. The stress that I put myself through just because that’s what I thought I needed to do ruined my writing. It made me not care because I cared too much, and it was an emotional rollercoaster with more downs than ups. 

Now, I'm not good with sticking to things, I love to have a routine, but if something is just slightly off with that routine, then the whole thing gets thrown out the window. The thing that has been working for me for the last week may suddenly get derailed because I miss a day of writing then I think I have to binge watch a show, then I have to organize my daughters closet, then it’s too late to write because I am just exhausted from doing near nothing for the whole day.

Once I got rid of the thought that I HAD to do things a certain way, that’s when I was able to get going.

What I’ve been doing is writing only one article every day. I'm not putting word count restrictions on myself, I'm not putting certain topic restrictions on myself, I'm not putting any restrictions on myself. Write one article a day. I am also doing it outside with my feet in the dirt and my sunhat on while my daughter plays. Maybe this has accounted for my mood, doing something I feel like I have to and want to do, outside, in the sunshine while surrounded by my happy daughter. 

My no pressure strategy has helped me to write more.

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Trashing My First Book

I learned the hard way what not to do when writing a book.

Now I know why you don’t publish your first book. If you don’t know what you are doing, you create a mess for yourself.

I didn’t have a plan, I thought ‘I’m a panser, this book is going to be great. Real writers don’t need to spend months plotting out their book.’

But I was wrong, seriously wrong, and I learned from it. I understand why people spend a lot of time writing a book, editing it, perfecting it, then they don’t write another one.

It’s a lot of work if you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s the same with everything in life. If you don’t do the research and figure out the best way to do something, it soon becomes harder to fix your mistakes. And believe me, you will make a lot of mistakes if you just jump in with both feet.

You want to have a good product; you want to show the world your talent.

But I am impatient. I want to get it done and get it out there. I have absolutely no patience anymore. If it doesn’t give me satisfaction immediately, I move on. Trying to write a book the right way will definitely test your patience. It takes time, unlike writing a short article, editing it, and hitting publish, then getting feedback, comments, and likes (claps.) Now that’s instant gratification!

Maybe I'm not cut out to be a novelist, and that’s not ok with me. I want to be an author; I want that feeling of accomplishment. I want to be able to say I wrote a book. But most of all I have it in me, the need to write a book, I have lots of ideas and stories, and I feel it pulling me. I need to do it.

In actuality, I did write two books, two very short books, novelettes, I guess you would call them, with the intention to write more of the story, five more novelettes, to be exact, and create a series. But based on my grand scheme to just let the muse drive the bus, without bothering to ask them where exactly we were going, I royally screwed up the first book in the series, and now I don’t have the motivation to rewrite the whole 30,000 words.

My first book, the idea I thought would be great, my book baby, turned out to be a disaster. I ruined it by rushing, by not knowing what I was doing, by not having a plan. My second book I learned a little from the first and had more of a plan. It turned out better, but I didn’t have the passion I did with the first book, so I think it suffered.

So here my two tiny books sit on my computer waiting for me to bring them back to life with editing, a lot of editing, but I don’t have the heart.

Now, my third book, that’s going to be great, I know what not to do.

Or, I will just completely start over with my first book, not rewriting it but writing from the beginning, starting over from scratch but with a plan, a real plan, like real writers do.

I will have a book one day, but you can know that that book is going to be good, that I worked hard on it, and I felt it was some of my best writing. That’s what I want to put out into the world.

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Kill Rejection with Positive Motivation

Kill Rejection with Positive Motivation
by Andi Lutz

Rejection is everywhere. Every time someone unsubscribes from my website I feel it like a punch to my self-confidence. Am I really good enough for this writing thing. Why don’t they want to read what I have to say? Did I write something they didn’t like?

But you can’t please everyone. It’s going to happen, you are going to get rejected a lot as a writer. The thing is, you can’t stop just because someone tells you no, or that you need to work on so and so, or you aren’t good enough. You need to keep going, you need to write more to get to the place you want to be. You need more positive motivation and not to dwell on the negative.

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Write Now

Write Now
by Andi Lutz

I woke up early, the sun wasn’t even up. The house was silent, except for the hum of the heater, everyone was still asleep, even the dogs. I shuffled into the kitchen with the cold floor chilling my feet and pulled my robe tighter as I looked for a mug for some tea.

This is what I love, alone time, quiet time, me time. This gives me a sense of getting a jump on the day and makes me feel like I can accomplish everything that needs to be done. I could write that novel, if I just got up this early every day. If the bed wasn’t so warm and cozy, and I wasn’t so tired.

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Journaling your way to writing everyday

Journaling your way to writing everyday
by Andi Lutz

Sitting on the couch with my electric typewriter on my lap, I spill my guts onto the keyboard while my daughter plays at my feet.

This is how I write, I journal first, get out the gunk that’s clogging the machine that cranks out the gems. I will journal about what I am feeling or what I want to do for the day or what is bothering me, and then I want to write more. It just takes a few minutes.

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Get over it

I know I have to write and should put it as the priority but it's always last on the list and then eventually never gets done at the end of the day.

If I make it first on the list and nothing can be done until I write then maybe it would happen.

I need to write as if my life depends on it.

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Write everyday, yeah right

Yeah, that is right. You need to write everyday because if you don't your pencil lead will get rusty and you'll have a harder time getting those ideas down.

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How to overcome your Writing Excuses

 
In an effort to make myself write more I listed my writing excuses and then tried to debunk them.
I have this list posted everywhere and I think it has helped.
If you are having trouble being consistent with your writing maybe you should make your own list.

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Why don’t I write every day,

what is holding me back from this dream

that I have and that I think about everyday

but I don’t actually commit myself to doing?

Fear of doing it wrong
So what if I do it wrong, I need to do it in order to learn how to do it right.

Fear of doing it and having to redo it
If I do it that’s something to be proud of because, even if it is wrong, I still have accomplished writing a novel. And if it’s wrong I will want to redo it and make it right and publish something good and then be proud of that.

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