Monday, September 26, 2016

I Give You Permission To Struggle

Things are not always going to be easy when you are a writer.

I know this sounds like a "Captain Obvious" comment, and maybe it is. Unfortunately, as authors, we are often obsessed with making every day of writing perfect and every scene we write, the best ever. We beat ourselves up when we have a bad writing day, or if we get a review from "some jerk on Amazon who clearly doesn't get it."

Look, I get it! These are not things that we want to happen in our writing career, but these things will happen. And you do have permission to struggle every now and then with your writing.

You have permission to spend your entire day just attempting to get 500 words written.

You have permission to write a totally sucky scene just to throw it away the next day.

But here is the thing. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow things will probably go well for you and the words will flow endlessly. Tomorrow you will find divine inspiration and every word you write will be golden.

I don't know if you remember Martin Landau's Oscar speech from a while ago, but he went on and on about the "peaks and valleys" of his career. Like Mr. Landau, you too will have those struggles. But it is OK. You will make it through it.

Just a little motivation for a Monday.

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