When I tell people that I am a writer, I’m not really sure what they think or expect. And in all honesty, I’ve yet to come up with the best answer. I write because it’s in me to do so. I write because I want to. I write because it’s a place of enjoyment.
I get the impression at times that people think a writer spends endless hours writing, coming up with brilliant ideas and penning them to paper (electric or other). And I think in my early aspirations of being a writing I had these same ideals.
Since then, I’ve come to learn that writing, good writing, takes a lot of discipline, focus and hard work.
If you have a desire to write a novel, that’s great. But approach those longings realistically. Very often, we don’t have someone in our corner cheering us on to write. More often, we have to discipline ourselves to find the time needed to write our manuscript. And believe me, this takes discipline. It means saying no to certain activities we’d rather say yes to. It also means finding the right balance of social and dedicated writing time.
In order to develop our discipline and see our manuscript to the finish line, we need focus. Writing a manuscript takes A LOT of time (A LOT of time). And as the writer, we need to keep our minds focused on the story we want to create. Sometimes we have an abundance of ideas that pull for our attention and by all means we should be writing those ideas down and keeping track of them. However, what we don’t want is ten great ideas, ten partially started manuscripts and a lot of frustration with unfinished projects.
And finally, in order to write an amazing manuscript, it takes a lot of hard work! Yep, you heard that right. We have to write when we don’t want to and when we don’t feel like it. We also have to choose to keep going when we want to give up. But that’s the beauty of it all.
I began this blog by mentioning why I write and not really sure I have an answer. I write because I love the challenge and I love the feeling of reward from all the work I put into the manuscript. I love pushing myself to learn and try new things. And I write because of all the creative ideas running around my mind begging to come out. I write because it’s fun and there’s no better way to spend a few hours bringing those imaginary characters and worlds to life. The discipline, focus and hard work are what help me finish!
Do you want to be a writer? I’d love to hear your ideas and what keeps you writing.
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K. M. Wray 