Writing Isn’t Supposed to Be Easy

I had an early yoga mentor who taught me the power of perseverance through “becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Don’t skip a pose or rush a meditation because you don’t like it, or because it’s difficult. Instead, learn to move through it despite the discomfort.

I apply this lesson to my life every day, especially with writing.

Writing is hard, but not in the same way a yoga pose is hard. At least you know have a general sense of direction with a yoga pose (😜). That was a joke.

Actually, I think it is more similar than not, because the hard part to anything in life—writing, yoga, relationships, parenting, jobs—usually begins with mindset.

The hard part to writing is sitting your ass in a chair and writing even when you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. Or submitting a piece again and again after you’ve received fifty-seven rejections. Or revising your novel for the eighteenth time. Or getting up on stage and reading your piece even though your voice shakes. Or continuing to work on your memoir after ten years and many different interations of your self. Or showing up to a writing group for the first time. Letting someone else read your work.

Writing is hard when it’s not easy and it’s not often easy.

But what if we removed ourselves from the outcome a little? What if we created some distance between “being a writer” and the things that come with the writing life?

I no longer count my rejections. I stopped labelling my revisions by number (I’m getting much more creative with titling them).

I don’t know if, as Cheryl Strayed said in her famous Dear Sugar response, “Write Like a Motherfucker,” that as I am getting older the prospect of not publishing a book is more terrifying than publishing a crappy book, or what, but it makes me feel better. Try it.

Do the hard thing—even when you don’t want to. Submit to journals. Keep writing even when you feel like it’s crap. Open a new revision document (might I suggest the title “AHHHHH_Rev.docx”)

Writing isn’t supposed to be easy. It takes creativity and discipline. It takes perseverance and risk. It takes grit. And usually it takes us plowing forward despite our fears.

Onward!

Like this? Try "Stillness is a Practice"

P.S. I’m going to be at Arthurdale Heritage Site Appalachian Authors event next week. (Hoping to see some of your there!) I’m devoting this time to my creative projects and reducing my online presence, so you won’t receive a Substack essay from me. Wishing you all happy writing!