The Book Wench

Being a writer isn’t easy. Anyone that has ever said that it was is lying. Now, before I go any further, please note that my experience comes as that of an unpublished writer – not yet an author but still well experienced in the art of writing. I have been writing since I was about seven or eight years old and am currently in my mid-thirties. That is a lot of experience despite not having anything solid to show for it – and trust me, I am all too aware of that. But I digress.

As I said, being a writer is hard. At the very base of the identity is the job of writing itself. Writing is, you guessed it, hard. Imagine settling before a blank, expectant page and having to dig deep into your mind to not only call forth all of the words you have ever learned but to order them in a way that not only makes sense but is pleasing to read. Now imagine doing the same without inspiration or while entrenched in Writer’s Block (not the same thing) or with such a level of self-deprecation that every word you write is received critically by the one person’s opinion you are supposed to rely on: yourself. Writing is hard.

Why talk about writing on a book blog? Because without writers, there would be no books. It is a logical chain that, once you think it, doesn’t need to be explained. But, oftentimes, readers (particularly those who are not writers themselves) forget that writers are people too. Demands for perfection and timliness and fan-service are abundant in the many fandoms that span the reading world. Readers tend to forget that most writers are not able to support themselves on their writing alone, that they must have other jobs and other responsibilities to keep themselves afloat and fed. Add to that their families, hobbies, illness and the various other additions to life and responsibility that the writers have – ones that readers themself have – and you get a full, sometimes overwhelming life. All in all, I write this to serve as a gentle, albeit much-needed, reminder to readers that writers are not perfect automatons that churn out books on an assembly line.

So what else about writing is hard? What other obstacles are their that writers encounter that make writing more difficult than it might be expected to be? There are a number of pitfalls that many, if not most, writers encounter at one time or another, to varying degrees.

The most famously known and probably universally lamented pitfall is the dreaded Writer’s Block. But, what exactly is Writer’s Block? According to the Cambridge Online Dictionary, Writer’s Block is “the condition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it.” It is when the creative juices are not flowing, when words are not forming, and ideas become static and stale. Imagine this scenario: You are trucking along with something you are writing, merrily tapping away at your computer or writing by hand when, suddenly, the voice in your head that tells you what word to use next goes quiet. You can’t think of the next thing to say or write about. Many writers have Writer’s Block in the middle of a project and many experience the blockage when starting a project. The point is, the drive is there but the words are not.

This is not some sort of medical condition; it is not a type of aphasia that is diagnosable by a clinician. It is simply the stemming of the flow of creativity that can come about for a number of very real reasons or sometimes for no reason at all. Stress is often a major factor in Writer’s Block, and the stress the writer is feeling is only magnified by the inability to create, to do what it is that makes them a writer. For instance, it took me almost six month to be able to write this post because I just could not think of what to say or how to begin.

There is a funny thing about Writer’s Block that doesn’t really make sense to anyone, let alone to writers themselves: you can have Writer’s Block on one project and be perfectly fine on another project. What’s more, it’s not the lack of inspiration that blocks you but it is almost an inability to find the next step, like trying to navigate a dark forest or a minefield without knowing where to place your foot next. while there is no physical danger from Writer’s Block (unless your name is Paul Sheldon), it is mentally distressful and can cause a whole host of other issues – especially if your livelihood IS dependent on your writing output. So you can know exactly where you want to go, what you want to write, but not know how to start or continue.

There are even items on the general market that are aimed at dispelling Writer’s Block, from activity books with prompts and writing exercises to crystals and tonics meant to ease or break the spell that Writer’s Block holds on writers. All told, Writer’s Block can be and sometimes is a death sentence for a writer. And not a one of us knows why it strikes us when it does nor when it will strike again.

Another pitfall that befalls writers is often lumped in with Writer’s Block but is a wholly different issue, although they look very similar. The lack of inspiration is one that is equally distressing to a writer but comes about when there is no idea to be had – no story to tell. This can come in the form of an entire book idea or in how the writer wants to tell the book. The motivation is there and the words COULD be there, but the idea itself is absent. Once again, this could happen between projects or in the middle of one. Case in point: I am stuck on the fifth chapter of a book that I have been working on for many, many years (more on that later). I have no idea what I need or want to happen in this chapter. It is a bridge chapter, or a chapter that serves as filler (a bridge) between two major events (aka chapters four and six). I know everything that happens before chapter five and everything after but I have no idea what happens in the chapter itself. I have no ideas, no inspiration. I could easily pick up with chapter six and just skip chapter five for the time being but I am a linear writer – I like to write things in order because that is the best way for me to keep everything in order and consistent. So I am stuck. Lack of Inspiration functions almost identically to Writer’s Block but where Writer’s Block literally blocks the words and creativity from flowing for no reason, a lack of inspiration is genuinely having no idea. Think back to that forest or minefield. With a lack of inspiration, you have no idea where you want to go and, sometimes (especially when between projects) you have no idea where you even are. While yes, I know that I need to bridge chapters four and six, I have no inspiration on what should happen or how or why – I have no idea that a path is needed because I don’t know what my end result should be. It’s a very weird place to be and, as I said, is a lot like having Writer’s Block so they are often lumped together – which is completely fine because the end result is the same: the next step is a leap into the unknown and writing halts because making that leap is hard.

A third pitfall writers endure is the one that plagues me the most as a writer: A Lack of Self-Confidence. When I write, I am constantly policing my words – looking for weakness and imperfection because at the very root of my being I do not believe that I am a good writer. Even as I write this, well aware of my feelings and the lack of self-confidence that burgeons inside me, I don’t know if I am a good writer or not. I choose every word carefully but I have no faith that I have made the right choice. I agonize hourly – literally hourly, even when I’m not actively writing – that my work is poor and my writing will not only not engage readers but shun them. This leads me, more often than not, to not writing at all because what is the point if what I will produce isn’t going to be anything worthwhile? This is how I feel on a daily basis and have for most of my writing life – almost 30 years. This is why it has taken me so long to write that book idea I have mentioned before, an idea I came up with over fifteen years ago. I do not possess the confidence to sit and force myself to write because I allow my anxiety and perfectionism to take over and ravage any confidence I am able to build in my writing abilities. It is exhausting and severely disheartening. And something that many writers endure. This lack of confidence is deeply rooted in anxiety and, in my case, clinical OCD. I obsess over my writing, sometimes one word at a time and compulsively edit and check and rethink and reframe and rewrite and seek reassurance and…see how easy it is to spiral? How easy it is to get absolutely nowhere despite having the inspiration, the drive, and no Writer’s Block to be found? It is, by and large, another death sentence to a writer’s career.

The fourth pitfall a writer experiences is one that exists outside the mind of the writer and is entirely out of the writer’s scope of control: the market itself. Imagine your favorite writer that hasn’t written in a while. Maybe they finished a book several years ago and then disappeared like a cicada, not to be heard from again for another seventeen years. Well, the truth is they could be experiencing any one of the pitfalls I have already mentioned. Or they are at the whim and mercy of the writers’ market itself. It’s entirely possible they have an idea, hell, they may even have a book written and edited and ready to publish – but the market isn’t there. Publishers are not going to publish a book that they don’t believe there is a market for even if the book itself is exceptional. What does it matter if a book is good if nobody is going to pick it up in the first place? Now, some authors get to bypass this issues because the mere fact of having their name on a book creates a market. Take Stephen King or James Patterson. These authors have a large enough loyal following that publishers can literally bank on readers just buying a book because the author in question wrote it, no questions asked and synopsis/subject matter be damned. And they are right. I know because I have authors that I will buy synopsis unread. But most authors do not have this luxury and instead must bow to the current of the market. If vampires are out then your vampire story is not going to sell. If you write a feel-good book in the midst of a Dystopian book boom, then woe be to you because you are unlikely to publish. There are exceptions, of course. And while there is ALWAYS someone out there who would be interested in a book based on its premise, publishers look at the numbers aspect. They are not going to publish a book that only a thousand people will read when they could have a market-appropriate book that millions will read. Unfortunately, for publishers, the market is entirely about money – that’s what happens in a capitalist society.

These are just some of the pitfalls that writers can encounter during their career; just some of the reasons that an author you love may not be producing. There are other reasons, of course: lack of time, illness or loss, the infamous “Day Job” getting in the way, etc. All in all, there are an untold number of reasons why said author may have stopped writing. An untold number of reasons why writing is, indeed, hard. Please have some compassion for your favorites and all writers in general because navigating writing alone, without the pitfalls is hard enough. Adding them into the mixture only makes things that much more difficult and, trust me, the writers are panicking enough without reader ire.

For any writers out there, there are of course, a number of methods or suggestions out in the world that purportedly help authors navigate these pitfalls. It very much depends on the method and depends on the writer but they can help. If you feel that you are dealing with any of these issues then don’t be afraid to pull up your favorite search engine and do some research. Find out what works for you. But please, do not give up. Your words deserve to be heard and I promise you that someone out there will love your story. You just have to get it out on the page.