10 things no one told you about being a writer

Two years ago when I started writing here on this blog, I had no idea what I was getting into. Now hundreds of blog posts later, I find myself in the final stages of my second book.

Here are 10 things I have learned along the way:

1. You will get stuck – just use stuck to your advantage

The key is to use the stuck feeling to your advantage. Use it as a signal to move to something else before you get really stuck.

I often stand up and read a snippet from a favorite book, get a drink of water, grab a paintbrush and start painting, or just lay down on the floor and stare at the ceiling letting my mind wander and comb over my “stuckness” from a different angle, literally.

Anything that gets your body moving and engages a different part of your brain will work.

I have recently been using my stuck times as times to make progress on something else, something completely different. Painting is my go to hobby for this. If I feel stuck in my writing, making progress on a painting will give me the feeling of progress I am craving. Then I can go back to my writing feeling energized.

My “unsticking” segments usually last from 5-20 minutes, depending on how stuck I felt at the time. I then dive back into my work with gusto. It works every time.

2. You must gain mastery over the delete key

Writing on computers poses an interesting scenario. There is this extraordinary temptation to continually delete what you have just typed if your words are not coming out right. The problem here is when you continually press delete, you are blocking your own rhythm. Picture a car stuck in a deep rut. The car moves forward, than rocks back into the rut. Forward, then back.

I have learned the flow of writing comes when I stop deleting and just let myself write. The deleting can happen later in the editing process.

Let yourself write awkward sentences, and leave them there. Just let them sit. Eventually your mind will stumble upon what it wants to say if you just let the letters continually pour through your fingers.

3. Some days you will come away bloody

Writing is comparable to running. Some days you feel like you could run forever. The air is cool, your feet light. You feel powerful, unstoppable. Tolstoy has nothing on you.

Other days you feel like you are running five marathons in a row. Hurricane force winds are whipping your body. Hail, tree limbs, and debris blasting you from all sides. You come away bloody, bruised, and doubtful you even have the capability of writing a single sentence, let alone a book!

Just as you become stronger each time you run, you also become stronger each time you write. The practice of actually writing something each day is what is important, not so much whether it was “good” or “bad.” Some days will be a battle, some will be a breeze.

4. Be on guard for the diversion

Many times I will sit down to write and suddenly I will have an onslaught of thoughts attacking me from who knows where. An email that I forgot to send, a random inspiration for a blog post pops into my mind, the fact that I need to remember to add cinnamon to the grocery list, or a sudden and almost emergency like urge for a glass of chocolate milk!

Before I know it, I am completely distracted and watching a video on YouTube about how to cure tooth decay with egg shells, fermented cod liver oil, and butter from grass fed cows (true story).

The diversion will plaster you and pull you to the ground quicker than a pro wrestler. Be prepared. Have a snack ready and keep a pen and a legal pad handy to write down distracting thoughts.

If you suddenly find yourself on Wikipedia looking up the jaw strength of a snapping turtle, steel yourself to come back and make yourself continue again, and again, and again, and again. Keep pressing forward until you feel the diversion subside.

5. Lean into the process – it’s a lot more fun

A writing project is a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage has both deep unfathomable fissures, and heights of breathtaking beauty. Some parts of the journey are cramped and painful and others are spacious and enjoyable.

Embrace the process. Become fascinated with the process. Let yourself become finer, richer, and fuller because of it. Trust the process.

6. Stop the chatter

Talking about a writing project before it is started is a fascinating temptation. Here’s the thing. If you talk about a project before you start it, you will get praise from people. Praise causes you to smile with pride, feeling wonderful about yourself and your book, until you go home and stare at your blank computer screen. Now your idea is out there, but you haven’t even started!

This is when the doubts come in like a swarm of hornets, “What if this offends my aunt Ruth?” or, “Who do I think I am just writing this book like I am a professional?” or, “She didn’t act very excited about my idea, I wonder if she thought it was stupid? It probably is stupid, maybe I should just forget about it.”

Here is a great tip: just start writing the book and stop talking about it.

7. You have to do the work

So there is something rather silly that needs to happen to write a book. You have to do the work!

Progress and consistency matter a great deal with writing – a great deal. They go hand in hand and see a project to completion. Do what you have to do to make these two words your best friends. Whatever works for you, deadlines, promises, a cabin in the woods, throwing away the tv.

“Do the work,” as Steven Pressfield says in his book by that title.

8. Your idea is not original

Just when you think you thought up the most original idea for a book, suddenly you will see this same idea in books everywhere. In fact you will start bumping into people who will talk about your idea, and start seeing it on bumper stickers and posters everywhere. You may even read about it on your favorite blog! “Hey, they stole my idea!”

There is the temptation to feel like your idea needs to be so new and creative that no one anywhere will have heard of it or thought of it, much less written about it.

Here is the key. No idea is completely original, so we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Everything you do is a mashup of ideas you have collected from other people. What is original and unique is the spin you add to your idea. No one else was, or is, or ever will be exactly like you.

9. Write like you talk

You talk everyday, right? So write every day as well. Write what you are learning. Write what you are interested in. Write what you are thinking about. Start a blog and write on it often. Your posts don’t have to be long, just consistent.

Write because you are curious and your curiosity needs a place to rest – in the form of words.

The more I write, the more I find to write about. I think you will experience the same. Writers block is non existant if you take this approach.

10. Keep the deodorant handy

True writing takes courage, guts, intensity, sweat, and tears. Writers who write this way write the books we love to read.

Now go write one yourself!