Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Why is Writing Every Day so Hard?


Write every day. It’s advice that every single professional writer that I have ever read or seen in an interview has given. And for a reason, too, it’s good advice. Advice I've given myself, because I’ve done it, and it does work in improving your skills as a writer.

But the question I find myself facing right now is, why is this so hard?

Why is it difficult for me to write every day?

I mean, it’s not like I’m asking myself to finish a complete novel every day. Hell, I’ve set myself a goal this year of writing 500 words a day. That’s only a half hour of writing. So, it’s not a matter of time, because I can easily find a half hour every day to sit down and write something.

Dialogue, a description, the opening of a scene.

Something.

But, here we are, twenty five days into the year, and I’ve only written on nine of them.

Why is that?

I don’t know. It’s not like the book I’m currently writing has suddenly stopped being interesting. It’s still a ton of fun. In fact, I have a few other ideas, one for a short story, that I am working on as well.

So, it’s not inspiration that prevents me from writing.

So, what is it that prevents me from writing?

Sadly, I don’t have any real answers today. I’m mostly here to write down my thoughts, get them out, in the hopes that writing this blog post today, sharing my thoughts and struggles with you, will somehow help me.

I have had one thought, though. Over the years, I have learned that at work, I perform much better if I am entertained somehow. In the past, that meant music. Today, it means podcasts or audio books. The truth is, what entertains me isn’t really important, as long as it entertains and allows me to do my job.

So, I’ve been wondering if I need to do something similar with my writing. Maybe I need to find a way to entertain myself while I write. Music seems to be a good start, so I’m going to try and do that.

I’ll be sure to come back here and let you know if I find any answers, to both the question of why is it so hard, and to if the entertainment helps me write.

1 comment:

  1. By my calculation, this blog post is 403 words. So, there you go. Almost done! :)

    You laugh, but I think this has merit. I often blog about a random idea when I am not "inspired" to work on one of literally dozens of fiction projects I have started and in various states of disarray. I find that blogging helps me focus and exlore ideas. Sometimes those ideas relate to specific fiction, and sometimes not. But, it's good practive for just getting words out in a coherent manner.

    That's my take, anyways. (92 words)

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