From One Writer to Another

I want to say this is an open love letter to writing. I want to say that writing is easy and being inspired is half the talent, but it really isn't. As I am writing this post, I am sat in Starbucks, trying, for the third day in a row, to write more than 500 words of my creative piece. Before I shut down my laptop and head home to crawl into bed and watch rubbish tv. 

I don't know who needs to hear this...but writing is hard. And you are not the only one who finds it hard to focus. 

At this moment in time, I am not really sure what this blog post is going to be.  I usually write posts with sarcastic humour filtering through it. But when talking about something that is as close to my heart as writing, I feel that it should be more of a serious post. Something, I am extremely bad at, being serious. 

I guess I'll start by giving some top tips...

Although I should warn you, I am definitely using this post as a form of procrastination. That's right, I have hit that wall where actually writing about writing is still better than actually writing. 

Also, I am definitely not qualified to write about this topic, just so you know. 

Probably one of the easiest things to do is to change location. If you spend all your time writing in your bedroom, then move. Put on some clothes you feel good in and head out. As I said earlier, I am sat in Starbucks and not even my local, yes, I took the train and headed to a different coffee shop to force myself to write. However, I am not sure that it is working considering I am writing a blog post instead of my actual work.

In theory and with a little more willpower, this will definitely work. I hope...

Take a break where you can. If you feel your brain is getting tired then take a small break, walk around, go get a drink or a snack. Just stop looking at your work for a few minutes. At the moment, I am experiencing word blindness with my work. For everyone that doesn't know, word blindness is where you have been writing for such a long time, that the words you are putting down on the page no longer seem too make sense or appear good anymore. You lose a lot of confidence in writing that is normally fairly easy to you. 

If you want an embarrassingly accurate example, earlier, I wrote 

"She got good hair"

Got good? GOT GOOD? I am literally a third-year creative writing student. Not only is that sentence not grammtically correct. There is also a million better words to use other than 'good'. You see what I mean?

This can (hopefully) be solved by short, regular breaks. Or you could just be like me and work for an hour then reward yourself with a four-hour break. 

However, I don't think this is the best way to work if I am honest. 

That one line that you think isn't that good, that one character which is a bit annoying or that one passage that doesn't quite fit the rest of the story. Well, at least you tried it, if it doesn't work, so be it. Try everything.

 When you are a bestseller, literally no-one will know that your romantic novel once included killer zombies but you were made to take out because 'they didn't quite fit the romantic theme'.  Not everything you tried will work - which is completely and utterly fine.  

The one thing that is really helping me get through my creative piece, is how the final product is going to look. When it is all together in a book with my name on it, I will have accomplished something amazing. Honestly, you have to work hard for everything. Even though I often want to delete/burn/throw away everything single piece of my work, I know all the tears and frustration will be worth it in the end. 

Keep writing, you will get through it eventually. I hope... 

I will keep you updated on whether I make it or not.

Thank you for reading!