There are so many writers out there who are adamant that a writer must do this or a writer must do that. That someone isn’t a writer unless they XYZ. The most common one I hear is that to be a writer, you must write every day.
When I hear things like that, I can’t help but think – no wonder some writers hate writing.
Dorothy Parker once said, “I hate writing. I love having written.”
One writer on Medium said, “It’s the burden of being a writer, not wanting to write.” They go on to say that writing can be boring.
Flannery O’Connor said, “Writing [a novel] is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.”
I never really understood this mentality. I never had the “I don’t want to do this” whenever I sat down to write, certainly not the “I hate this” – mostly because I was so thrilled at having been able to carve out any time to do so. I look forward to every Friday when I take the entire day to focus on my WIP.
This idea of “I hate writing. I love having written.” is so common that people make jokes about those who say they do love writing. In a recent podcast interview with Bill Lawrence, he went so far as to joke that “when someone says ‘I love writing,’ keep an eye on them because they might be a sociopath. … I don’t mean to stare at them all the time, but just corner of your eye.”
I do understand that I am talking about a specific type of writing/writer here (and a specific point in the process), and that I don’t write under deadlines – and each of these things can change someone’s relationship to their work. But maybe, just maybe, someone can actually love the act of writing. Someone like me.
Elisa Doucette on Medium says, “Writing is hard. Hitting deadlines is hard. Coming up with ideas and attempting to share them in any sort of cohesive and competent manner is hard. Sitting your ass in a chair to vomit up the shittiest first draft you’ve ever written, until the next shitty first draft you’ll have to write, is hard.”
At the start of every semester, I talk with my students about writing anxiety and other attitudes we may have toward writing. On the composition side of things, these students didn’t choose to take the class. Most have no interest in writing academic essays. At least on the creative writing side of things, they chose to take the course. Though that doesn’t always mean that they are in the mood to write what needs to be written.
The first lecture I give in both types of classes is about how writing is a process – and that the most important thing we can do is figure out what process works best for ourselves. Some folks love outlines. Others prefer visual maps or freewriting. While pantsing (the act of just drafting and seeing what comes up as they write) can work in a creative assignment, an academic essay requires planning. If they can figure out a process that works for them, then the anxiety and moodiness will minimize.
So what is the process? Planning. Organizing. Drafting. Revising. Editing.
These can all look different to everyone. Planning can be as simple as a spark of an idea or as complex as creating detailed character backgrounds and ‘set design.’ Some folks (pansters) may skip over planning and organizing, while others (planners) will come up with an outline – which can be of varying levels of detail. Some stick strictly to their outlines while others allow themselves to open it as they draft. The whole point is to try out things until you find what works best for you. And ignore what everyone else tells you that you HAVE to do in order to be a writer. (And no, you don’t have to publish to be a writer. That doesn’t have to be your end goal, either.)
A fiction student once sat in my office upset because they had read that Stephen King said that any book you can’t write in three months isn’t worth writing. She had been working on hers for a couple years already. I pointed out that this was his process, and also that he gets to work as a writer full time – he’s not having to work a different job to pay the bills or go to school full time. All he has to do is write, and he’s found a process (and a genre) that allows him to complete an entire manuscript in three months. That doesn’t mean that needs to be true for every other writer.
Whenever another writer tells me that I should be writing every single day, I bristle – and then I point out that I don’t have time in my schedule for that. The response is usually – but you can find at least fifteen minutes a day! Sure. But it takes me more than fifteen minutes to get into writing mode. I’m a tunnel-vision kind of worker. I create my schedule in days – not hours or minutes. One day is for grading a particular class. Another is for housework. Fridays are for writing. Because this is what works best for me.
My whole point here is to say – go ahead and hear what other writers have to say and try it out. If it works for you, then great – keep it. If it doesn’t, then don’t – it’s not a failure on your part if it doesn’t work for you.
Ami Maxine 