You're NOT a Writer

I always struggle to start a new story, maybe it's because my brain is still caught up in my last work, or maybe I just have commitment issues when it comes to continuing a new WIP.

This year, however, I have found myself struggling even more than usual to find the motivation to sit down and just write.

My brain felt fried. I assumed it was due to some stress I was dealing with, so I let myself slack off on writing, only to find that when I sat back down again to write that I had nothing.

I sat down at my desk, put in my earbuds, turned on some music at low volume, opened Word, and then just stared at that blinking cursor.

Minutes turned into hours. Hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks. Occasionally, I would get an idea and finally type a sentence or two onto my screen, but still, it was going so painfully slow.

After a while, I realized I was waiting, which sounds and is ridiculous.

Waiting for what? My fairy godmother to appear in my room, wave her wand and sing "bippity-boppity-boo, your writing woes are through"?

Truth is, I was waiting for inspiration, and inspiration wasn't coming. I fell into a trap that so many have fallen into before me.

After realizing this, I forced myself to write.

And I liked it. I didn't realize how much I missed just writing. I had forgotten how getting completely lost in your story felt.

But it wasn't and still isn't easy. Some days I have to force myself to actually write all over again. Some days I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with my WIP. Some days I want to delete every single word.

But other days, I love my story. Other days I want nothing else but to write and slip into my own world where anything is possible. Some days the magical possibilities of my WIP make me forget all about the trouble of forcing myself to write. And I realize how lucky I am to like writing, and how much I adore writing.

So for all of y'all reading this, if your Word file looks like this every time you open it:

Just know that you can do it. Put your fingers on your keyboard and write your heart and soul out.

In the words of Dan Poynter, "If you wait for inspiration to write you're not a writer, you're a waiter."

Have you ever found yourself being a waiter instead of a writer? 

Happy Writing,