For me, as with so many others, writing is a reflex. It’s not that I don’t actively make myself do it, it’s that I find it hard not to when I get the urge. Whether in my mind, on my phone, laptop, tablet, notebook, or scrap of paper, I’m always writing something. Like this blog. I try to upload weekly as a habit, but I was seduced by writing fiction last week and could not think about anything else, so I missed a week, but that was okay. It’s not like I wasn’t writing anything at all, I just focused my energy on something different, more personal.
Though I write my blog to share, I don’t have any intention of sharing my fiction right now, as I derive a lot of joy just from writing it for myself, trying to get better, to understand what I want to say and how I want to say it. It can be a maddening task, taking an idea and making it into a series of sensical sentences, but it can also be rewarding, to type something out and it just feels… right. I’m always looking to reflect on the reasons I continue to write, to make sure I’m doing it for the right reasons, and I’d like to weigh up the pros and cons here.
What I Hate about Writing
Self-doubt
Most people have periods of time—whether short or endless—in which their concern with how ‘good’ they are at something they do takes precedence over either doing it or trying to learn how to improve, myself included. Any and all productivity comes to a decisive halt, replaced by reminders of your shortcomings and how terrible it is that you have wasted and will continue to waste so much time. But if you aren’t writing at all, there’s no chance you can be good anyway. If you don’t learn how to ignore the self-hatred, the inspiration and motivation won’t matter at all.
Time Investment
Writing takes a lot of time. Between thinking, researching, planning, drafting, re-writing, and editing, it can take months or years to produce your desired product or even a portion of it and comparing your pace to others will only cause further despair. Learning how to accept the arbitrary time and effort necessary to write what you want can be tough and initially off-putting when all you want is to see that idea for a novel or that short story you thought of coming to life.
Lack of Feedback
When you’re looking, it can be difficult to find people to critique your work. Even if you do put it out there, the chances of people coming across it and having the bravery (or callousness) to leave a comment on it pointing you in some direction with no compensation at all is minimal. And if you have no sense of what you can do to get better, the well of motivation can quickly run dry.
Negative Feedback
On the other hand, for a lot of people, negative feedback can be a setback, latching on to that self-doubt and sapping the remainder of your will to keep trying. It does not help that a lot of people forget that constructive criticism exists and opt to tear your work apart instead, or that human error can lead people to read something wrong.
What I Like about Writing
Any Feedback at all
I know this may seem slightly ridiculous, considering this is the third time I’ve mentioned it, but feedback really can be both a good and bad thing. Having had my work critiqued a few times, occasionally to my face, I’ve reached a point where I can take it. It may sting when you’re told your characters don’t make sense or your story is boring, but it’s a starting point for improvement, which is better than nothing. It’s far worse to present your work for critique and receive no notes, good or bad, than receiving a slew of bad ones.
The Purging of thoughts and ideas
Writing does not have to be a strictly creative endeavour. Writing can be used in a number of ways, with less limiting structures than fiction or even blogs allow. It can also be fun to keep a diary, to get your thoughts out of your head, though I’m far too paranoid to let my innermost thoughts live anywhere tangible. I’d much rather scatter my own thoughts across my characters and let it be their problem.
The Freedom to Create
As human beings, we’re a creative species. We like to make something out of ‘nothing’, and for a lot of people, writing is a great way to do that. You can really impress yourself by writing, be proud of yourself for taking a blank page and covering it with a story, and don’t forget to claim those bonus points for finishing it. It’s a great feeling to create a story from a few ideas, to put the ideas to the page and watch as everything begins to make sense, coming together in the best way possible. We all love to tell stories, some of us just do that through writing.
Sharing
When you write, it’s hard not to want to share it. With any hope, you’re excited about whatever it is you’re working on and want people to share it with. Whether I’m the one writing something, or I’m reading something written by someone else, I love sharing my thoughts on it. It’s part of the reason I started this blog in the first place. I’m obsessed with reading, and I think creating stories is one of the most fascinating things we can do and when I read something exciting, it inspires me to write.
I don’t think I could live very happily without having writing to turn to, and even though it drives me insane, it will always be my first love, regardless of how cheesy that sounds. Which is very.
Read 'N Riot 