Stop being a filthy, damned liar.\u00a0 The only thing keeping you from writing is you.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have the time? Make time. You\u2019ve got a busy life? Then schedule it in. Either start being honest about the reason you\u2019re not writing, or start being honest about the fact that you don\u2019t want it enough to make it happen. Because if you did want to see this thing through, you\u2019d start sacrificing to get there.<\/p>\n
The true reason you aren\u2019t writing is because you\u2019re afraid. You think you\u2019re not good enough or smart enough or clever enough. You don\u2019t value your own perspective. You think anything you had worth saying has probably already been written by someone else, and you bet they were a lot more talented than some coffee-shop hack with a laptop.<\/p>\n
You know why you write in restaurants? Because strangers feel less judgmental than family. Those people ordering lunch have no idea what you\u2019re working on. They probably don\u2019t give a good god damn about you anyway, and they sure as hell don\u2019t have a clue about what you secretly hope to achieve. Anonymous is neutral and numbing and safe.<\/p>\n
But family . . . well, that\u2019s something different altogether. That emotionally invested band of suckers you cling to knows all about your hopes and dreams. You made the mistake of telling them because, let\u2019s face it, you had to tell someone. And now they\u2019re rooting for you. Bastards!<\/p>\n
The belief that other people have in you is a tangible thing. It has weight \u00a0If you find this idea hard to believe, ask yourself why you can feel it when someone doesn\u2019t believe in you. (I can feel you nodding out there, or at least wanting to. Just give into it. Bob the head a little. See… now isn\u2019t that better?) The absence of faith has a gravity all its own, and I don\u2019t think belief exerts any less force.<\/p>\n
In my experience, the belief that others have in you feels heavier than the belief you have in yourself. Maybe because there\u2019s more of the former, and not enough of the latter. Whatever the reason, the confidence that others have in you is both a blessing and a curse. Well-wishers are nice, but they also increase the circle of awareness for your imminent failure. (Logical or not, that\u2019s how it feels.) Put another way, while it\u2019s nice to have someone to talk to while you trudge up that hill, you kind of wish they were schlepping some of the gear instead of just riding piggyback.<\/p>\n
But guess what? That\u2019s what you signed up for. You\u2019re the writer; you blaze the trails. Your friends, your family, your readers: they\u2019re just along for the ride. And if you\u2019re honest with yourself, that\u2019s how you like it. It\u2019s fun lording over the worlds in your head. You enjoy that time-travel high you get when the words are flowing and the muse is friendly and… oh my God, I forgot to eat lunch.<\/p>\n
Writing is sometimes a lonely, solitary business, and we writers can be melancholy little bitches. We spend so much time plotting and planning and fearing about what may and probably and will go wrong that we sometimes forget to just sit down at the keyboard and have some fun. I don\u2019t think any of us got into this game so we could stare at the hateful, blank page until it consumed our soul.<\/p>\n
But if you don\u2019t get out of your own way, that\u2019s exactly what will happen. You need to find a way to play again. Make the words about the words, and leave all that other garbage behind in the real world. It\u2019s play time.<\/p>\n
One foot in front of the other, one word at a time. Take that god-damned hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stop being a filthy, damned liar.\u00a0 The only thing keeping you from writing is you. You don\u2019t have the time? Make time. You\u2019ve got a busy life? Then schedule it in. Either start being honest about the reason you\u2019re not writing, or start being honest about the fact that you don\u2019t want it enough to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[366,398,773],"class_list":["post-2512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writers-life","tag-expectations","tag-fear","tag-obstacles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}