On Craft…
Writing is fucking hard, man. The whole practice of giving body to the swirl of thoughts in your head can feel close to impossible on a good day. We do it anyway, because it’s also the most nourishing thing we know. Dramatics aside, I’ve found it’s a lot easier to write and feel good about the process of writing when you embrace difficulty as part of the process, and not a sign you should stop writing forever.
The truth: Working through material struggle will help you produce a more meaningful-to-you project. I am not suggesting struggling to write results in better quality work, but I am saying you will love your work more if you battled to get it done. With yourself, of course. I’m speaking strictly about the physical act of ideas-to-page and sentence making. The external struggles of being a writer are not included and, if we’re being honest, should not exist.
Fighting through a sentence is incredibly rewarding. I’ve found it helps to enter into a writing session with the idea that it will end. There will be resolution. Regardless of how it goes, you won’t be trapped in a state of turmoil forever, and that provides me with some peace and comfort. Enough to, at least, make it through the session and build some sentences and even a paragraph, even a piece. When words aren’t coming together or sentences aren’t making sense, too, remember, you can delete them. You can simply try again. No one will know.
Hitting backspace is still forward movement. This took me years to learn. Every boundary you encounter while trying to get words out is no setback. You’re still pushing forward and massaging out ideas. Sometimes you write for an entire day and delete everything. This is not a failure! This is you making way for the better sentences to come. If you think of yourself as always in motion, even when motion is difficult, it gets a lot easier to be your own positive force during the writing process.
Nothing in art is linear—or life, or healing. The path to publication is a windy road I don’t totally understand, but do appreciate. I know now I’m not a failure if the piece is biting back at me. Neither are you. Instead, we are merely working through. Every step is a step, and that is cause of celebration. Moreover, every step is one you did not take prior, so, of course, you’re doing the damn thing! Don’t fight the struggle, embrace it and move through and with it as you complete your piece. Wasting energy trying to course correct a tough moment during writing is just that: Wasted.