How To Cope When You’re Not Where You Want To Be With Your Writing
What’s going on in your world?
Are you able to get on with your writing? Is work or a family matter getting in the way?
Is it taking longer than you thought?
Are you getting waylaid by procrastination and that pesky inner gremlin?
Is there more Netflix or Youtube being consumed that words hitting the page?
Are you ashamed of where you are at, at how long it is taking?
Do you have writer envy as you witness other authors publishing their books or getting newsletter subscribers or press exposure?
Last week I wrote about my fatigue which means I’m not able to do as much writing as I would like. For this weeks newsletter I wondered where you were with your writing and whether you need some encouragement, particularly if it is not going as you would wish.
Focus on what you have done
Focus on what you have done and what you can accomplish. You may not have finished the edits on a manuscript but you did get the first draft done.
If you haven’t finished that first draft yet, celebrate the fact that you are 15,000 words in.
Celebrate that you have written today, even if it was only a paragraph.
For me, it is a victory that this article is written. I’ve managed to maintain my weekly publishing schedule. I might not be doing much other writing, but I’ve achieved this goal. Hurrah!
How else can you see your value at the moment? What encouraging advice can you give yourself?
If you can’t look positively on your achievements, then get a friend to remind you of them. We’re often much harder on ourselves that we are on other people.
Beware writer envy
Thanks to social media, it is very easy to stoke your writer envy. For me, that comes from Twitter.
I follow lots of authors and people in publishing. I see book releases, reviews from book bloggers, posts about forthcoming writing festivals, authors letting off steam, as well as articles about writing. Even though I have made peace with the fact I’m not writing much, it is still frustrating to see other people’s progress and potential opportunities with which I’m not currently able to engage.
Sometimes we have to remove ourself from these sources of envy. As I write this, I know I need to take a break from Twitter. In the past I’ve had to unfollow people on social media because their posts make me feel miserable about myself and my own progress.
Remember that when you have writer envy – you’re only seeing the best moment of that author’s output. You’re not seeing how many obstacles or how much frustration they went through to get that result. Even if a result looks glossy or exciting, it doesn’t mean that everything is going well for that person. A gazillion social media hits doesn’t necessarily translate to book sales.
You’re still making more progress than ‘most people’
Console yourself that most people don’t even start writing that book they’ve always dreamt about, let alone work consistently on it for weeks, months or years. You’re already ahead of the game.
Work on something different
If you are stalled in one of your projects, maybe you need to take a break and work on something different. Or write something for fun. Or write something silly and enjoy the whimsy.
Some people like to embark on different forms of creativity, whether that is playing music, doing cross-stitch or breaking out the sketch book. Playing with another part of your creative brain might give you renewed juice for your writing.
Fellow Substack writer, Meta Wagner, has just written a brilliant article about this. Click here to read it.
Not all writing has to be for public consumption
We can get hung up on publishing whether that is a blog, newsletter or another book. But not all of our writing has to be ‘out there’. Maybe you just need to write what is in your heart. Maybe you need to experiment. Maybe you need to give yourself permission to write badly, safe in the knowledge that no-one has to see it.
Journaling counts. Sometimes what you percolate in your private writing eventually manifests to an idea that you can execute in ‘proper’ writing.
How can you make your writing doable?
How can you alter your pace so that your writing becomes doable in your current circumstance? Perhaps it isn’t feasible to write every day. But maybe you could do an hour on Wednesday evening and two hours on Sunday. That is better than doing nothing.
Perhaps you can only write for fifteen minutes a day. But if you make use of that time, you will make progress with your project.
Is there any tangible action you could take to improve things? What help do you need? Would an accountability partner make a difference? Or a good friend to nag you?
What can you do to be kind to yourself?
You will get there in the end
You will get there in the end and it will be worth it.
It was twenty years of on/off effort before my first novel was published. It was so wonderful when people started reading and enjoying the book, because I always knew it had that potential. The amount of time elapsed made that victory even sweeter.
Some things take time. I’ve just read the recent issue of Mason Currey’s newsletter where he talks about the author Jean Rhys taking nine years to finish her masterpiece, Wild Sargasso Sea, having not published anything for twenty years. This makes me feel better about my own writing pace.
I’m very envious of quick writers who can put out a book every few months. But I’m unlikely to be one of those. It just isn’t my pace.
No effort is wasted. Even if a project doesn’t work out as you would have wished, you have still learned something, you’ve improved your skills, you created a writing routine and you might find that elements of this project could appear in a future piece of work.
Keep going as best you can. Better times will return. When they do, you’ll be glad that you’ve done your best until then.
Photo by Zohre Nemati on Unsplash
You might also find these articles useful:
How To Deal With Other People’s Expectations Of Your Writing
Why It’s Sometimes Hard To Write, Even When You Really Want To
All great advice and reminders! One of my goals this year was to reframe how I feel on Twitter and to train my brain to be celebratory for others, rather than envious. I know the envy comes from a mindset that thinks there's not enough to go around, so I have to remind myself that they are paving the way, and there's growth in all these areas. The market can expand! More people will read. There's no finite amount. I have improved I think... And I the feelings go away if I am plugging away at my own work consistently too. It only gets bad when I don't prioritise my own work and so I get frustrated... I am NEVER where I want to be. But that's mainly because I am unrealistic with my goals :D
Thanks again!
Timely words for this writer. Thank you!