I absolutely love helping writers make the most of their writing lives.
As the year ends and we look ahead to the New Year, I want to say thank you for reading what I have to say about how to have a fulfilling creative life. I made you something special as a token of my gratitude.
It’s a free PDF download called 25 Ways to Be A Writer That Don’t (Really) Involve Writing.
Sometimes we need other ways into our writing besides actually writing.
I know firsthand that it can be tricky to figure out what you need when you’re feeling restless with your work.
Instead of doing nothing or forcing things to work when they’re not, I compiled a resource for those times when you want to feel like a writer but not (really) write.
Be sure to let me know what you think! I’d love to hear if it helps you make the most of your writing life. I hope it does.
How many times have you heard the old myth that you must write every single day in order to truly be a writer?
Dozens of times? Hundreds? More?
It’s one of the most-shared pieces of advice that I’ve heard in my thirteen plus years studying writing and I’m sure you’ve come across it many times yourself, too. It’s as pervasive as the tip to read voraciously.
The problem with saying writers must write daily isn’t that it’s wrong. The problem is that it generalizes all writers and fails to acknowledge the reality that every writer is different.
The other problem is that it creates a standard you may not be able to reach, and the resulting feeling of failure can be a huge block for some people. You might even feel shame if you aren’t a daily writer, and that’s just silly.
I get it, though.
I used to write every day, but I don’t anymore. I don’t believe that you have to, either.
You can love writing but keep yourself from doing it.
Sometimes, it’s just too hard to start writing. The fear of failure can be so overwhelming, it blots out any feelings of hope or joy or excitement that you want to feel when you’re in the creative process.
And, logically, if you never let your writing materialize on the page, you can’t fail, right? If there’s no story/novel/essay/blog post to show the world, the world can’t judge it as good or bad, a success or failure.
If you want to write, if you love writing, if it’s something you truly want to do freely and joyfully, the fear of failing can be one of the biggest obstacles in the way of actually writing.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! Even if it’s been years since you last wrote, you can start again today if you shift your mindset just a bit.
A well-meaning but misguided person once told me that I’d never write after I had kids.
In fairness, she had a small child, a full-time job, and wasn’t a writer herself, but still. You know what writers don’t ever need to hear? All the ways life will make writing difficult or impossible.
We don’t need to hear that because most of us are already battling a full range of reasons not to write every single time we sit down to do it.
One of the top reasons is that we don’t have time. We’re too busy with life and everything we have to do to keep our lives running smoothly. Writing, especially if no one’s waiting for you to finish a story, can often feel superfluous.