3 Lies I Told Myself When I Wasn’t Writing

Don’t wait as long as I did to finally see through them.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

I joined Medium almost two years ago. I just published my first story last week. That’s how long I’ve been here, reading and clapping for others’ work, following great writers and publications, and wishing I could be one of them. Oh, I had plans to start writing someday…but I kept pushing someday further into the future while I told myself lies about why I couldn’t start now.

If you’re a longtime reader who hasn’t quite gotten around to writing yet, read on and see if any of these lies sound familiar:

I don’t have time.

This has been an insidious, persistent lie. I work five days a week in a restaurant. It’s a hard, physically demanding job. Some of my shifts start at 8 in the morning, but others don’t start until 10 or 11. On those days I have typically lounged around in bed until 8:30 or 9, then spent the next hour sipping tea and idly scrolling through social media. I told myself that because I was going to spend the rest of the day working so hard, I deserved to just relax and chill in my downtime. I considered leisurely mornings crucial for my mental health, my sacred me-time.

What I didn’t realize until just this past week is that it’s writing that is crucial…