Phoenix Living

By now, if you’re participating in this write-a-novel-in-a-month deal, you’re likely to have hit your first wave of “wait, whatever made me think i could DO this?” While some of the advice I’ve been giving is more practical ways to address that issue, all the practicality in the world still won’t necessarily quiet those doubts. So what do you do?

Well, there’s always the “holy gods this is so much more pressure and stress than I even guessed, good try, better luck next year” option. This is certainly a very tempting option, and it might not even be an incorrect one for your situation. You might not be a pro at assessing the effects personally of your own stressload, but you’re still going to have more info on you than the rest of us. However, if you pick this option there isn’t much point in me continuing on with my advice posts this month, so let’s assume for the moment that we want to continue to write, it’s just frikken hard sometimes.

There’s not room in one post to cover all the options for combating your writing doubt, but I can always go back and expand these points out in later posts by inclination or request. One big hurdle that hits many writers is a difficulty in separating the functions of your internal writer and internal editor. The internal writer, though stronger than you often think, is still quite sensitive to harsh judgment and attitudes. The generative creation energy of the internal writer can feel very capricious in how and when it shows up. This part is normal, and there are definitely tricks for work-arounds on this tendency, some of which have already been mentioned in these posts with likely more to come later. The difficulty often arises when the internal editor–a creature much more forebrained and usually quite full of judgments about writing–gets too much sway over the thoughts/emotions/process during the writer brain portion.

The internal editor is a useful beast. Often a bit too assured of its own importance in the scheme of things, it tends to jump in and participate when it really would be better to wait for its proper time in the limelight. Don’t eliminate it entirely, especially if you want to keep writing, as you’ll need that perspective later. But however you manage it, gag it, distract it, or otherwise control it, figure out how to get your keep-writing answers. Examples:

Wow, this is a steaming pile of word crud. Are you really going to leave that sentence there?
Shut up, I’m writing. Come back later.

Could you fit any more cliches into that last paragraph?
lalalalalala, can’t hear you, busy writing.

2000 words a day is too much. Plus you’re already behind.
Don’t care, can’t count right now, too busy writing. Count later.

Real Writers don’t have the problems you’re having right now. Also, your butt’s getting numb in the chair.
Hey, it’s time for my hourly stretch break anyway, I’ll go grab a butt-pillow! Now, back to writing.

Are you reading yourself right now? I mean, I’ve seen bad before, but…
Doesn’t have to be good, it has to get done. Back in your box, editor-monkey.

Future posts we’ll get into include examining writer issues such as the myth of perfect prose, and the transition scene difficulty of “how do I get my characters from where they are to where I need them?”, and Steve’s rule of “every writer needs a dog” and why. For now, what are your personal doubt issues in creative pursuits? How are you dealing with it (or not)? Other suggestions for future topics?