A lot of people who
don't write, wonder why it's so hard. Well, I'm about to tell you.
Here's a list of why writing is hard:
Writer's Block. Every writer experiences this at one time or another, and it's horribly frustrating. You're staring at your blank page, or at the last line you wrote, and you're just stuck. You don't know what to write next but you feel like you must continue. You get a headache because you're focusing so hard as you try to think of a ways to continue. You feel like you can't walk away and leave your book this way, you want to finish what you've started. Every writer hates and battles with writer's block. It's just part of the process and it sucks.
Starting a New Book. Starting a new book means: New characters, new setting, new
personalities, new descriptions, new plot, and basically, new
everything. Starting a new book can be easy for some people, but it can be difficult for others. Or it just depends on how much of your book you already have planned; you may be one of those magical people that already have the beginning of your book planned so that, now, all you have to do is get it on paper. Lucky you. Writers that can't just pull a beginning out of their magic hat both hate and envy you.
Trying to be Realistic. Every writer wants their readers to feel the main character; understand the main character; understand the main character's situation; understand and see the world you've placed that character in. But if you're writing, let's say fantasy, it can be hard to describe the interaction your main character has in the world you've placed him/her in while also making this fictional world seem real. You don't want to sound too cheesy; you want this fictional world to be awesome and exciting; you also want your characters to seem realistic, but you're hesitant because you are worried your book sounds stupid.
No idea is stupid.
As long as you act and write like you believe this world is real, your reader will feel that it is. The goal is to always make your book entertaining, exiting, good, and realistic. You can only achieve this if you try your hardest to make it these things. Write what you want to write! That's why you have this ability in the first place. Not everyone can just sit down and write. I know it seems natural, but it's not. It's weird and awesome, so embrace that and write whatever you want to write about.
Making Things Fit. Imagine that you've dropped your favorite vase and it shatters into a thousand
pieces. You want to put that vase back together because you love it. This seems totally impossible, right? Well, that is what it feels like to
write a book sometimes. Big pieces have to fit. Small pieces have to fit. All the pieces have to come together in order to put together the thing you are trying to create. Details, details, details; they always must be added to make the book, and plot, good. And it can be really frustrating when you're not entirely sure how all those details come together as you get closer and closer to the climax. UGH.
Getting Emotionally Attached to a Character You Have to Kill. Now, all writers are weird, so we usually enjoy killing off characters, maybe even the ones we like. Though I like killing characters, I don't enjoy killing off characters that I like. Killing off a likeable character will definitely leave your reader upset, and that's usually a good thing. It means you sell more books lol!
But seriously now.
Killing a character you like is so hard, because you've created this person and it's someone you like and feel really bad about killing, but at the same time, you have to do it because killing him/she is part of the plot. It's necessary, so you do it, but you don't like it.
Character Development. Writers always put a little bit of themselves in their characters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because your unknown readers won't know you so they won't see it, but family and friends and other people that know you, will. Everyone puts a bit of themselves in their characters, but you have a draw a line and avoid stepping over it. It's hard to draw the line. You're you and it's hard to change that. It's hard to come up with a person and then become that person whenever you sit down to write.
World Development. You may have difficulty in describing the world you've created (if you're writing about a fictional world). You want your reader to grasp the world you've created--to see each detail you see, but you may not want to be too descriptive. Depending on their writing style, writers can have a lot of difficulty with this. I feel that a lot of us don't want to spend too much time describing scenery because their worried about boring their readers.
Character Descriptions. You may already have an idea of what your main character looks like. Well now you have to get that down on paper. And what about the other characters in your book? They need to have a face too, and a body....and everything that entails creating a fictional-human-being. It can be hard to keep up with character descriptions, especially if you have a lot of characters, and it can be hard to come up with looks because you want everyone to be different and unique in their own way. Yeah...I have the hardest time with this. I usually come up with the description, then write it down under the character's name and keep it tacked to my bulletin board so I can keep up with who's who.
Coming back to writing after having had walked away. It's hard to come back to writing after you've stopped for awhile, however, it's even harder to re-enter the writing world if you've stopped in the middle of a manuscript, short story, poem, etc. because you have to regain your grip on the story and feelings during the scene you were in.
Not in the Mood. This happens to me more than anything. After work and classes, who feels like writing? It requires a lot of thinking--too much thinking, so after a long day, it can be super hard to convince yourself to write when all you want to do is lie down and watch TV.
Editing. Editing is really hard for a lot of writers, because we're not editors. We wrote the story, and now we have to do everything we can to make it as good as it can be before we show it to people, try to get it published, self-publish it, or whatever it is that you plan to do with your manuscript once you're done with this process. Editing consists of grammatical corrections, making things (puzzle pieces) fit, adding sentences or paragraphs to make things more intense, taking out scenes that we feel are unnecessary, and so much more. Editing is
not a one-two-three ordeal and I, personally, hate it.
But I do it because--as a writer--it's my job, and my novel is unfinished until I've completed the circle-of-writing, as far as I'm concerned.
Did I miss anything? What should I have added to this list?
Happy writing! <3
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