Five Problems With Being a Writer (and How to Solve Them!)

Being a writer means that you have a lot of neuroses. Making it fun is when you need to overcome those neuroses in order to get something on the page. With that in mind, here are some of the more basic problems writers face and how to overcome them.

I don't know it, so I shouldn't write about it. 

"You should only write about what you know" is great advice, but some people treat this as a wall to trying new things. You should see writing as an opportunity to learn new things, not stop learning; some people write about things as an excuse to learn about things that are normally outside their experience (just look at how many histories are written by people just exploring their past). So, rather than treating it as an excuse why you're not trying that cool urban magic romance idea, use it as an excuse to figure out how the "old wise woman magic works". Charge into it!

[Just because: The idiom is to emphasize that we all know little things that no one else does and that we need to put those little things in our writing as they help make the writing ours. I like strategy; is it a surprise I put a lot of fights in my stories? What do you like? And why isn't it in your stories?]

I'm not talented enough to have imposter syndrome. 

We all suffer from this. Being a writer is to wear a series of different masks in very quick succession as we shift from character to character. Worse, no other occupation is based more on pure moxie, the part of you fakes it 'til you make it' moxie is that part of you that tells you you can do it even when you yourself know you have no idea what you're doing.

"Not knowing what you're doing" is the heart of being a writer. You won't know if you can do it until you do it; so we need to do it to see if we can. This isn't to say you shouldn't read books, watch videos, interview experts even do whatever IT is, but you shouldn't be afraid to try doing something new or writing about something you haven't experienced. So, sure: Charge in, but make sure you've done the homework first; it's just another mask to wear, but wear it with pride.

I don't have enough background in something to say something about it. 

Who does? Think about that for a second: You have people that are experiencing something but don't know the history or why it happens. On the flip side, some people know why something happens, but haven't really experienced it. You can also have someone who is experiencing something and knows why it happens but doesn't realize that it happens to someone else or someone not from their group.

It's actually rare that someone is experiencing something but has full knowledge about it. The soldier may not know why orders were issued, the officer may not understand the plight of the soldier, and some soldiers may know why the orders were issued but see them as officers trying to kill him (which could actually be the case).

Do any of these people have the "proper background" when it comes to the situation ins question? That is, would you trust any of their opinions completely by themselves? Of course not; their information about the situation isn't complete. Sometimes you need someone from the outside to point out the obvious issues.

So don't worry about not having the "proper background." Make sure you do the research, get different perspectives on it, and charge in; as long as you're confident that you know the situation you should be fine. But make sure you have a reason for that confidence before you charge in or you may be hating the reviews.

Nothing is original, so why bother?

Too many are worried about creating something new, so hearing this tends to cause them to give up; if they can't do something no one has ever seen before, why bother? The reality is that this should be freeing; you don't need to worry about creating something new, just something interesting. This allows you to critique whatever you want, play with subverting expectations, or just create the most interesting story you can. Don't worry about being original; be worried about being boring, and try to never be that.

My voice will never carry the crowd, so why should I try?

Then become a megaphone: You are only as quiet as you let yourself be, and when you find your voice everyone will listen.

Too many writers never do more than become a voice in the background; they never advertise themselves, they rarely use their social media for more than advertising and don't really market themselves. They don't do anything to really stand out; worse, they never do anything to stand above the noise. This means that they are easy to ignore and no one really cares about them simply because they never rise above being white noise.

On the flip side, you have too many writers that are more worried about marketing themselves than establishing an actual voice for themselves. They never discuss their political beliefs and only support things; they stay as vanilla as possible in order to please everyone. Yet again: They never rise above white noise and so they are easily ignored.

This is not to say that you should disagree with everyone and that you need to go on social media just to aggravate people. You should, however, use social media to show off your personality, and your interests, and even support and protest different things; you need to show people that you have an actual personality.

You have access to a megaphone, but you need to up the volume or no one will hear you. Otherwise, you may as well be whispering into the void.

Hopefully, this should make you feel better about your writing. Now that the bigger problems have been settled, it's time to write!