This is What Happened When I Stopped Putting My Writing on a Pedestal

Writing is hard work and it’s time to stop treating it like something fancy

Don’t put the writing process on a pedestal

They’re everywhere. I used to be one too — the ‘writers.’ These are people who treat writing like it’s some kind of spiritual practice — as if the words can only come out if the environment is just right.

We’ve got writing groups, writers’ retreats, stay-cations, coffee shops, and special corners of the basement, next to the furnace.

Fancy writers picture themselves as something between end-of-life Hemingway — drunk, with a shotgun in one hand and a typewriter in the other, and Van Gogh — ear-less.

These folks are supposed to suffer for their craft.

And the myth of the suffering artist is contagious. Look at any trendy coffee shop and you’ll see them lurking — the same people every night with laptops and notebooks.

Sure, there’s a manuscript somewhere in the rubble, but there’s more suffering to do before it’s ready.

There’s a built-in support network in the suffering artist community

Creatives like to share war stories around each other. No one gives a damn about that one week where you knocked out 40,000 words effortlessly. No…