Note: This is a guest post by Ali Luke.. Ali has been writing for a living for eight years, and she blogs weekly about the art, craft, and business of writing on her site Aliventures .. Youāre at your desk, and the words just arenāt flowing.. You feel like getting up and walking away from your writing⦠and never coming back..
However much you love writing, itās hard at times. It can feel like a relentless, unrewarding slog.
And those doubts (that were at the back of your mind all along) start getting louder:
āNo one cares about what I write.ā
āNo oneās ever going to read this.ā
āIām wasting my time.ā
āIām too old (or too young) to be a writer.ā
āI might as well give up.ā
⦠and maybe you do give up, for a day or a month or even years ā but writing draws you back in.
Trust me, I know what it feels like. Iāve been writing for a living for eight years now, and writing novels for far longer, and I still find myself questioning. Doubting. Thinking about quitting.
Sometimes, of course, quitting is sensible. Thereās no point carrying doggedly on with a project that youāve long ago lost all interest in.
But often, quitting isnāt the right choice. A week later, or a month later, or five years later, you find yourself wishing youād just stuck with writing a little longer.
(After all, since youāre reading this post, itās a safe bet that deep down you donāt want to give up.)
Hereās how to decide when to stick with it and when to quit, whether youāre considering giving up on a single project, or writing altogether.
#1: Should You Give Up on a Writing Session?
Twenty minutes into your planned writing hour, youāve accomplished precisely nothing. Maybe you wrote a sentence or two, hated them, and promptly deleted them. Youāre feeling very, very tempted to give up and try again tomorrow.
Occasionally, this might be the right choice. If youāve hit a block in your work-in-progress, for instance, perhaps you need to take a step back and do some extra planning.
Often, though, the reluctance is because youāre tired or in a bad mood or overwhelmed. So:
- Set a timer for five minutes, and writeāwithout deleting!āuntil your time is up. You can do anything for five minutes, however much you donāt feel like it initially.
- Now, reassess. Do you want to carry on? If you still really donāt feel like writing, stop. Be kind to yourself. You might want to spend a few extra minutes journaling about why youāre feeling blocked, or whatās going on in the rest of your life.
Of course, one skipped session isnāt going to derail your project ā just like one cupcake isnāt going to ruin your diet.
The problem is that one skipped session usually leads to another ā and the longer you spend away from your work, the more resistance youāll feel toward getting started again.
#2: Should You Give Up on Your Work in Progress?
TO CONTINUE READING Go to theĀ Source: How to Keep Writing When You Want to Quit
Like this:
Like Loading...