How to keep writing when the writing gets tough

Writing is tough. Yeah, I know, I spend my writing time in a comfy chair in an air-conditioned room, lifting nothing heavier than a can of Diet Pepsi while other people are working construction in triple-digit heat. Trust me, I know how privileged I am. But while writing isn’t particularly physically demanding, it demands quite a bit of mental and emotional toughness as well as a huge dollop of faith–mostly in yourself. In this post, I take a look at the challenges writing presents and offer a few suggestions for pushing through when every cell in your body is screaming at you to quit.

But before we get to that:

Happy IWSG Day!

In case you’re new here, I participate in the monthly IWSG (a/k/a Insecure Writers Support Group) Blog Hop, which happens on the first Wednesday of each month. We offer words of encouragement to our fellow writers and share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Some of us also answer the monthly optional question. This month’s question is: When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing to the end? If you have not started the writing yet, why do you think that is and what do you think could help you find your groove and start? Thanks so much to our wonderful co-hosts this month: SE White, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguire, Joylene Nowell Butler, and Jacqui Murray. Stop by and leave them some comment love.

What’s so hard about writing, anyway?

How is writing hard? Let me count the ways.

1. You have to have tremendous faith in yourself, because it’s just you and your ideas and your skill. Unless you write collaboratively–and most of us don’t–the initial creation stage is all you. Whether or not you complete the manuscript depends on whether the ideas come and whether you can find the self-discipline to put your butt in the chair and do the work. There’s no team to rely on, no partner to help carry the load. It’s all you, baby. But no pressure 🙂
2. It requires focus and concentration. I’ve heard of writers who can write in five-minute snatches while chaos blooms like a mushroom cloud all around them, but I am not one of those writers. Which means I have to carve time out of my already-hectic life, duct-tape my family to a wall in the back bedroom find a place without noise or distractions, and put my butt in the chair.
3. It’s mentally exhausting. Creative work is a joy, but it also takes quite a bit of mental horsepower.
4. There’s no clear path to success/reward, so you have to do all this work just because you want to. The publishing business is brutal. Rejections are the norm. Self-publishing is an option, but doing it well requires a significant investment of both time and money–and the field is crowded, so it’s hard to stand out enough to build a solid readership and sell well. In other words, if you’re writing for the money, and you aren’t already successful, maybe find a more reliable path to riches like playing the lottery. (See this post for tips on defining what success looks like TO YOU)
5. Related to item 4 above, writing can be demoralizing. You share your work with a critique partner, and they hate it. You submit your work for publication, and it gets rejected. You read about trends in the market, and your story fits none of them. Rinse, repeat until you feel limp as an over-washed t-shirt. (See last month’s IWSG post for tips on dealing with difficult feedback on your writing–basically my do-as-I-say-not-as-I-did post.)

How I push through and keep writing

Back to this month’s question: how to keep going when the going is tough with a particular story. I’ve hit a point with both of my novel manuscripts where I wanted to tear the hard drive out of my computer and blow it up with a tactical nuke (why yes, I am just a tad overdramatic). This story sucks, it’s always going to suck, I suck, why the hell am I wasting my time pretending to be a writer instead of going outside or reading something by someone who actually knows what they’re doing… and on and on. My inner monologue is a b*tch. Literally.

Here’s how I’ve managed to keep going when my inner monologue is screeching and the Demon of Suckitude has settled in for an extended stay:

1. Maintain my writing habit. I wrote a whole post on making writing a habit, and it works. I may not want to, but I’ll sit down and write every morning, because I’ve trained my body and brain to do just that.
2. Be OK with suckage. I drafted my current WIP, Delta Dawn, as a NaNoWriMo project in 2019–a month after my mother died. It was not a positive experience. Many days I forced myself to sit down and write words, convinced I was writing total crap. And I did write a lot of total crap. But I also wrote some good stuff–though I didn’t think it was good at the time–and even the crap could be (and is being) revised. See my Lessons from #NaNoWriMo post, written just after that experience, for more about fighting through a difficult draft. And channel your inner Dory:

3. Take a break and write something else. If the words won’t come at all, or I’m so miserable I can’t bear to spend one more minute with my manuscript, I set it aside for a day or three and write something completely different (and preferably something at a different stage in the process). So if I’m slogging through a miserable revision, I’ll plot out a short story or draft a poem or, my favorite, write my next blog post. Whatever I think will spark some writing joy.
4. Commiserate with other writers and be reassured by their stories. Writing groups are great for this, as are writers’ memoirs. When I learn a really successful writer experiences the same pain I’m currently feeling, I have hope. Right now I’m reading a collection of very short (2-3 pages) essays by crime writers that was published by Sisters in Crime back in 2014 called Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey. It’s out of print, but used copies are available and cheap. So many writers have struggled and still gone on to live their dreams. Maybe I can too, and in the meantime, I know I’m not alone.
5. Find inspiration in the works of others. This one might be my favorite. When I’m feeling stuck, I read something by one of my favorite writers, and often I go back to my own work with new enthusiasm. Nothing like a little vicarious magic to get the creative juices flowing.
6. And finally, have faith in myself. The ideas will come. I can revise the suckage into something that sucks less. I can build my skills to a level that matches my ideas. I just have to put my butt in the chair and get to work.

How about you? How do you push through a challenging project (writing or otherwise)?