Hard Truths About Writing that No One Tells You

Hello, fellow writers. From bloggers, to poets, to those of us ambitiously tackling our first novel, welcome to my Writer’s Circle! Here, I will dive into my writing process as I complete the first book in my trilogy of young adult fiction work. So pleased you’ve decided to join me.

A little background: I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since… forever really. But 8-year-old me had a very different writing process than adult-writer me, who intends to send my work to a publisher this year. And no one prepared me for it — I had to figure it out on my own.

So, grab a cup of coffee, take out your notepad (for when you get a spark of inspiration and faze out of this blog post momentarily to scribble it down), and let’s talk truths about writing that no one tells us about. Let’s dig in:

You’ll spend 80% of your writing process not writing.

I’ve been daydreaming there with all of you… fantasizing about abandoning my day job to make a full living off of my writing. Picture this: sitting at the kitchen table, a warm cup of something in your hands, looking longingly out the window at the morning sun and letting out a pleasant sigh… oh look, your next big wave of inspiration has hit. Better start writing… cue turning to your laptop and writing the next New York Times Best Seller.

This fantasy is a lovely one, and I’ve had it often. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. However, what they don’t tell us is that most of the writing process involves an intensive amount of researching, brainstorming, and editing.

I’ve spent 10x more hours editing than I have ever spent writing, by a long shot. Editing and fine tuning your work is the backbone to your writing process, and needs to be taken seriously. For writers who hate re-reading their work, and detest editing in general, this part of the process is a tough pill to swallow.

To write well you have to write what you understand.

A story can be told most sincerely when you’re able to draw from your own experience and knowledge. This ensures that the events, interactions and emotions experienced by your characters are believable and realistic. But rest assured, writing what you know doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have experienced the exact same event in your own life.

A huge component of writing what you know is doing the necessary research. Lack of research shows a lack of effort, can portray misinformation or inconsistencies, and can confuse the reader. If you truly care about the integrity of your story, you’ll do a serious amount of research.

Writer’s block is less about the battle with your inner writer, and more about the battle with your inner editor.

Writer’s block can feel like a solid brick wall that just can’t be broken down. It’s the single most frustrating and tormenting part of the writing process, and every writer has experienced it at some point in time. Many of us know it as an old, unwelcome friend.

In the face of writer’s block, consider this: we are in this position only because our inner editor is getting ahead of our inner writer. When this happens, no idea we even begin to brainstorm is good enough. No plot-line is clear enough. It’s a vicious circle of self-sabotage.

Don’t let your editor try to beat your writer to the punch — before you can edit something, it first has to be written. Your inner editor is often your biggest critic, so it’s no surprise that it stops us in our tracks.

When it comes to writer’s block, we’re our own worst enemies, and the best cure is getting out of our heads and just writing through the block until we find our rhythm again.

It takes a hell of a lot of dedication to finish your work (way more than you’d think).

How many aspiring authors have you met who are writing their first novel, but started 5 years ago and haven’t written much in weeks, months, or even years? Writing to complete a project, such as a novel or collection of poems, takes determination and resilience. The kind that lasts over a long period of time.

The toughest part about writing is doing it even when you’re not overflowing with inspiration. It’s sticking with it when you’re writing a slower part of your novel, and all you want to do is get to the next climax scene. It’s pushing yourself to work out the details of how you’ll wrap up your story, so that you can move forward and get it on paper. It’s completing your first draft, second draft, third draft, editing all 150–250 8x10 pages over and over and then sending your work off to publishers. It’s waiting months and months, unsure about whether you’ll even hear back from anyone.

Writing is not for the faint of heart, or those who detest long-term goals. Because your writing is like your child — for it to succeed, you have to nurture and raise it for the long run, until it’s old enough to stand on its own.

Writing can get lonely.

Writing is something solitary, which we often do alone. Depending on how much we write, we may find ourselves lonelier than other people. Most writers need to be on their own to process, brainstorm, and organize their thoughts.

Only you know the nature of your ideas, inspirations and drive… while you can share these thoughts with other people, you know very well that the brain of a writer runs at a hundred miles a minute, and it can be hard to keep up with. Even for you, the person having the thoughts.

My remedy to this sort of loneliness is to write in public places like cafés, and to create a solid community around me. Some of that community is on the Twitter-sphere (under the #amwriting hashtag), while others are fellow writers I meet up with regularly in person to exchange pages and problem-solve together.

Final word.

There you are! Some hard truths about being a writer than no one really tells you about. I hope this piece has offered some perspective and insight for you as you continue forward on your writing journey.

Until next time!

A version of this article was originally published by the author on Medium.