Saturday, June 12, 2010

Writer's Angst

I've been productive today - looking over my social networks, answering my emails, trading critiques AND writing.  One of the writers on my social network made this comment "for the first time in a long time, I feel very content with who and what I am. I'm sure it won't last (I'm a writer, we're neurotic) but I'm very much enjoying it."  This is a feeling I can relate to.

As a writer, there are always ups and downs - one of the most frequent questions we ask ourselves is "Why Am I Doing This?" accompanied by a certainty that what we are writing is pure drivel.  Neurotic?  Absolutely!  It goes with the territory.  You hit a downturn in the writing process - a plot point that you can't quite see clearly or a slow part that stalls you out. 

One of the things that stalls me out is my day job.  I hit that "I don't have the time to devote to writing" roadblock frequently, and then I get a big block of quality time - like today - and I discover that I REALLY love the story I'm writing right now.  So even though I don't have the right allotment of time at the moment to devote to it, I have SOME time to devote to it, accompanied by large chunks here and there, which I take full advantage of.  So even though yesterday I was ready to throw it all in with the whole "why bother?" attitude, today is a new day, and it's these nuggets of inspiration that light up our lives that keep us moving on.

What motivates you to keep going even when you feel like you're fighting a losing battle?

3 comments:

  1. After a few days of NOT writing, of feeling like I'm spinning my wheels, it becomes a viscous cycle. But then you realize that the reason you're down is because you're NOT writing, and when you get back to it, everything feels 'right.'

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  2. And I really didn't mean to type viscous, but that seems to work, somehow. Slogging through the thick muck.

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