Everyone talks about gratitude and how impactful it is for creating a happy, fulfilled life, but what about having gratitude for your writing life?
It’s incredibly easy to forget what a gift it is to love writing. When we feel stuck, or when a project stalls out, or when we’re overwhelmed with self-doubt, the last thing we’re thinking about is how grateful we are for writing.
Usually, in those moments, we’re thinking about what a pain it is. We’re thinking about how difficult writing feels, how untalented we are, how silly and pointless writing can be.
Maybe you focus on how long the road is (“I’ll never get published at this rate!”) or how much you still have to learn (“I know nothing about character building!”), but how often do you fill up on simple gratitude for your writing life?
Writing, in general, is no joke. But working on a major writing project, like a book-length manuscript, is seriously no joke.
The great thing about beginning a new project is the excitement. The novelty. The newness of it all. It’s shiny and thrilling and you probably feel full of ideas, even if you’re also a little scared.
Have you been there before? In that place where you’re buzzing with the energy of something new and the words just flow?
I’ve been there. It’s fantastic. I wish all my writing could exist in that elusive, delicious place of flow and ease.
It doesn’t, though. For me, and I’m guessing for many other writers, too, there comes a point when the momentum of starting something new fades and the writing process gets a bit… stickier.
Know what I mean?
Maybe you’re there right now and it’s making you want to light your manuscript on fire and walk away forever.
I’m here to tell you there’s nothing wrong with you if you feel like hitting select all and then delete would solve all your writing woes. Nothing at all. It’s absolutely normal.
But I don’t think you should do it!
Yes, sometimes a project really isn’t working for any number of reasons. I’m not talking about that. You need to use your better judgment and decide if you’re facing a project that is truly flawed or…
If your desire to scrap it all and never look back stems from self-doubt and resistance.
Only you can decide if your project is worth sticking with. But believe me when I say that most of the time, it is.