Writers Don’t Have to Write Every Day
I haven’t been writing lately, and it’s fine
Words are like water in a well, sometimes they run dry. That is what I tell myself when I fall into a writing slump. Or when I unconsciously avoid writing because there are so many other things to worry about, or becasue I’m afraid I forgot how to write a simile or realistic dialog. Writing is not easy for me, mostly because I am a perfectionist. Perfection drains the joy out of everything, it turns play into work, exploration into study, and passion into diligent, structured discipline. It’s not that those things are bad or anything, they are just as important as their counterparts, it’s just that they drain me sometimes. It’s completely a me thing, but I now I’m not alone.
I know why you opened this article. You, too, are a sinner. When I hear about writers who write every day with out fail, and I mean write pages upon pages, whole chapters, perfect, edited poems… I find it hard to believe. And I usually don’t believe them. I’m sure there are a few special snowflakes out there and who am I to enforce my own reality onto other writers, but it seems unrealistic to me, and if not that then at least unenjoyable. Either these people are lying, or they are miserable.
I’m not saying that writing all the time makes you miserable, I’m saying that no one wants to do something all of the time. It is impossible regardless of how much one loves a thing and I would like for someone to prove me wrong. Think about how miserable we would be if we never spend a waking moment away from our families, that’s how divorces happen, and how holiday fights break out. No one would insinuate that a human beings need and right to have a life outside of whoever they love means they do not love those people. That is completely ridiculous and unhealthy reasoning. In relationships, it’s good to take space, to set apart time for oneself and understand that ones partner needs that space aswell, it can make you even closer in the end.
That’s exactly how I feel about writing, I love it, with all my heart, believe me. And I know most writers do. This sort of occupation isn’t one people go into for no reason, and it’s certainly not one people go into for money. People go into writing because they are called to do so, and because they would love to do so. But writing is a relationship, just like every other. It has ups and downs, there are fights, and sometimes you stop speaking to the page for a while, then you get back together, you grow from past inadequacies and immaturities. Sometimes writers say goodbye to an aspect of their craft forever, their bond irrevocable. We move on, to the next part of our journey, to our next relationship or to an exploration of ourselves.
“I hate writing, I love having written.”
― Dorothy Parker
Writing is hard. It takes something out of people, and I think that’s why the subject of writers block is so popular. Sometimes without knowing it, we buy the respect of other writers with word counts as if they are a currency which proves how wealthy we are in skill or literary and academic authentication. Writing, like everything else, has fed into this worlds extreme capitalism so much that more of it is always regarded as better. Where does that that leave the less prophetic writer? Even people who write 10,000 worlds a day need a break sometimes; what makes writers block, whatever the cause or intricacies so much worse is the guilt that comes with it. The expectations put upon creatives is unfair and unhealthy, and it can drive a person who once loved their craft to find nothing but dread at the thought of practicing it. Holding and entertaining unrealistic expectations about when writers should write, how they should write, and how much they should write turns creating into a chore judged based on the outcome and not the process. When we glorify guidelines, schedules, and deadlines, we fall out of love with the actual art of writing.
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
There’s more to being a good writer than putting words to paper. To be a good writer one must observe, listen, and have a high emotional intelligence. Living life is a part of writing, and living life entails much more than just sitting in front of a computer screen day after day. The next time you start beating yourself up becasue you haven’t written in three weeks [or longer], remember that and believe it with all your heart. Just becasue you are not writing, does not mean you are not practicing these other parts of creation, which will enable you to write a better story once you do pick up the computer or pen and paper again.
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
George Orwell said that. It speaks to me deeply, and it applies to all writers, and all people, not only to novelists. Sometimes writing is insufferable, our passions have the ability to drive us crazy, but we mustn’t allow them to make us forget why we love them, and why we must always come back to them. Writing should be a challenge, not a burden.
