I’m in a love-hate relationship
Life in General, Writing|All this can affect your state of mind. Every writer I’ve ever spoken to about this has admitted to having those days when they wonder why in hell they are doing this. Sometimes you lose direction or focus. You don’t know what to do next, or you struggle to choose which direction to take your writing.
All the writing courses I’ve studied or how to write books I’ve read, all advise the author to write every day. Christmas, your birthday: they all say, write write write. What I think they should actually advise is that you write on a regular basis, but I’m guessing the fear is that if you stop you won’t be able to start up again. Really, though, when should writers take a break? Everyone else has a holiday.
Bare in mind that most writers work part-time if not full-time or have other commitments that take up a large part of their day. They often struggle to fit their writing in with their day-to-day life. Then aside from the writing, the writer has to become involved with many other aspects of publishing. These days they usually have to maintain a website, they have to promote, the more successful they are they may need to make appearances. Yeah, we should all be so lucky but the fact remains that writing is WORK. Sometimes it is so much work for such little reward that writers have moments when they wonder what it’s all for, is it all worth it, and why do they do it. A few days later, they are usually inspired again. Most writers write because they ‘have’ to. They’d likely go insane if they didn’t feel that need. Still, people in other occupations take time off. When does the writer take a break?
Like most writers, I was a reader ever before I put pen to page. I have a hill of to-be-read books currently aspiring to become a mountain. Sometimes I can’t help thinking how nice just to take a week where I read rather than write. Of course, sometimes while reading, ideas will pop into your head but even if you noted these down, I can’t help thinking that it would be sheer bliss just to refuse to write for a few days. If you take everyday life, reading, and writing into account, many writers have words constantly revolving around in their minds. Some days I wish for silence but then the writer lives in fear of the day when there’ll be nothing BUT silence, when the plots and character ideas stop coming. Is it any wonder we love and hate writing so much?
I have days when I sincerely wish I’d never felt the urge to write in my life and was still a happy, blissful, ignorant reader. It passes. Like the words in my head, these phases revolve. Just bare in mind that there are many good reasons why many authors have a love/hate relationship with their work.
