Writing is hard work

And that's what makes it so satisfying

‘Now I know why writers drink.”

Something I repeated often this year as I worked doggedly on turning a rough first draft into a more polished second draft. The commitment, discipline and focus required to finish a novel is intense. But there’s also the toll of experiencing emotions alongside your characters. If you can’t feel what they are feeling, it’s impossible to write plausible characters that readers will care about. As they moved through grief, guilt and disappointment, I moved through it too. As they found joy, gratitude and resilience, I also experienced those emotions.

It’s like living your life, as well as the lives of everyone you’re writing about. The adrenal fatigue is real and if I didn’t have a thousand magic tricks for managing my moods, the process might have burnt me out. I suddenly understood why some writers (and aren’t we generally more aware of feelings to begin with?) need to numb themselves with alcohol, drugs, etc.

Bonus points to whomever can guess what Montréal café this is by the counter.

But you have to keep jumping in, day after day, until the last word is on the page. If you don’t, your novel will never get written.

This belief is why I don’t react gracefully when I hear someone say, “anyone can write” or “I just want to write one book and live off that for the rest of my life”. Who are these people who think that writing is so easy? As if writing is a skill you can turn on and off when you need to. Like the ability to whistle.

As the Twitter saying goes, “If you can’t be bothered to write it, why should I be bothered to read it?”

You should hear me chortle when I’m watching a movie and it’s revealed that the main character is a writer. I get that it’s shorthand for identifying this character as a seeker, a critical thinker and a bit of a romantic. I also understand that maybe it’s easier for the scriptwriter to connect with the main character if they share a calling. But how do they get the writing done when they are also busy making snow angels with the small-town hunk or stopping a bus from exploding?

For myself and other writers I know, maintaining the required consistency or momentum means prioritizing writing over social outings and extracurricular activities. Even the writers I know who have 9-to-5 jobs and/or families to raise, acknowledge the necessity of getting up early or leveraging commuting time to devote time to writing.

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Don’t I sound like a bunch of fun? 😃

After all that ranting, here are my two main points:

1. Take your writing seriously and make it a priority.

2. The effort required to produce good writing reaps great rewards.

Every day, my sentences get sharper, narrative choices get easier and edits are clearer. Even if the output one day was laboured, intermittent or just BLEH, having made the effort makes me happy every single time.

If you don’t believe me, then listen to Dorothy Parker, who (may or may not have) said, “I hate writing, I love having written”.