My Top 3 Writing Pet Peeves

I love writing; I really do.

It’s an amazing way to express yourself and I can honestly say I’ve grown over the years thanks entirely to writing. I started writing on Medium years after I first started writing in my free time. I honestly have very few complaints about writing.

However…

Writing isn’t this miracle hobby that provides you millions of dollars and single-handedly cures your depression, clears your skin, and waters your crops.

Despite my love of writing, I have a few… annoyances with writing and blogging. (If you’d be interested, I could do a whole separate post about my pet peeves in books and other creative writing works. For now, I’ll leave my thoughts and feelings on those topics out of this list.)

Let me explain.

1. Grammar. Now, I’m not a perfect writer, far from it. I’d consider myself to be one level above a complete beginner and I’m fine with that. I plan on writing my entire life so I can always improve. But, sometimes when I’m writing, there are certain things that slip through the editing process. And thus when I reread my work and find an error or have someone point out an error for me, I feel this irrational frustration with myself. I’ve gotten better over the years at letting myself feel frustrated and just learning from it and moving on, but… the perfectionist in me still struggles. It’s a part of my writing process at this point.
2. Writer’s Block. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I love writing. Whether it’s in a blogging format or even just journaling, I find it to be a blast. However, despite my affection for writing, sometimes I find myself unable to muster up even the slightest bit of interest in writing. Hell, it can last anywhere from a few days to a few months. It can be a rather frustrating experience, knowing that this thing brings me happiness, yet I just can’t be bothered to actually do it. Of course, it’s more complicated than me just not wanting to do it — still, it feels like that’s what it is sometimes. Over the past year, I’ve done my best to just accept the ebbs and flows of the writing process and let my body and mind decide when they’re ready to write again. Still, it’s a bit of a work in progress.
3. Feeling Inadequate. Sometimes I watch YouTube videos explaining all these ‘super easy’ ways to make money with writing. Or I see testimonials from people explaining how they make six figures a year from writing and I’m just like, ‘wow, I am actually a failure’. I don’t even see writing as a job! I see it as something I work on in my free time and have fun with… and sometimes make extra coffee money off of. Yet, I sometimes feel like I should be doing… more. More writing, more diversifying, and just doing more to be making money. I feel like I’m missing something, sometimes. Like there’s some secret to success that I’m missing out on or overlooking. I wish I could say that, like the other two on this list, I’ve been improving with my thoughts and feelings on the individual peeves. However, life doesn’t always work like that. I still feel inadequate every time I see someone express how much money they’ve made and how successful they are. Guess I still have more learning to do for this, huh?

But, those are my writing pet peeves! I think a number of you that also write can probably relate to at least one of these. If you do, let me know! It’ll make me feel less alone, at least.