I am in a place of pain. I have physical pain, as I have damaged my hands, end up having to use a voice dictation package to write this today. I have financial pain, as many of us do in January, and face the new year with a certain amount of anxiety and trepidation. And I have emotional pain, from weeks being unable to function or do things for myself, and from the usual family issues of life. Those of us who are fortunate enough to get older will know that it is not for the faint-hearted, and that there are various milestones along the way - some of which we may be quite happy to give a miss!
That is the truest sentence I could find today, and I followed it with a few more true sentences. So here are a few more: writing comes from a place of pain. There is a reason why many successful writers are older: we have lived! We have loved, we have cried, we have lost and we have gained. the trick is to translate your pain to the page. As I was thinking about our previous blog, and struggling with writers block to boot, I kept coming back to a mental analogy of exercise. You can think about exercising, you can read about it, you can even join a gym. But ultimately, you have to do it!
The most difficult thing about writing is the beginning. You have to turn your computer on, and you have to get your bum on the seat. You have to get your fingers working. It doesn't necessarily even matter, in your first draft, what comes out on the page. What matters is that you have a first page! You cannot edit what is not there! Get as comfortable as you can, sit down, and write. Do not stop until you have your story, or your text. Edit only after you have first put it down on the page.
And the truth about writing is that, yes, you have to be born with a talent, but a lot of it is learnt. And that is what makes the difference between a successful writer and a non-successful writer: simply that one writes and the other doesn't. Writing is painful, it is painstaking, it can't take a long time, and it is lonely. But you write because you must - because you are a writer. Yes of course, a writer is what you do, but you also write while you stare out the window. Many writers will tell you that they write all the time, constantly, in their heads. There is a sense in which their life is a story. They see stories everywhere, they feel them, they live and breathe them. But it all means nothing until you have the hard work and discipline - and the long-suffering - to get it down on the page. That is what separates the writers from the mere dreamers!
So, what will you be at the end of this year: dreamer or writer?
The decision is yours. The first road. Is wide, and you will meet many others on it. The second road is narrow, rocky, and difficult. Few find it. But those you meet on the way - less frequently, but meet them you will - are artists, wayfarers, adventurous, and above all else, brave!
Here's hoping that this year will be your year of the writer!
All the best,
The Word Wise team