Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing and what it means to be a writer.
I’m in the process of drafting my second Pride and Prejudice variation, and to be honest, it’s been a challenge.
Unlike many authors, I didn’t always want to write. I never dreamed about seeing my name on the New York Times best seller list. I didn’t compose and illustrate my own storybooks when I was a kid. I came to writing later in life, and maybe because of that, I think I still have a fairly significant case of impostor syndrome.
Often, I’ll read an interview with an author where they expound on their daily word count, or the new story idea they can’t wait to get to work on, or the fact that they became a writer because they couldn’t imagine not writing. And the thing is, that’s not me. As a matter of fact, when it comes to some of the most commonly held beliefs about being a writer, I definitely do not fit the mold.
For example:
- Writers write every day.
- Writers love writing.
- Writers don’t write because they want to, they write because they have to.
Now, maybe those things are true for many writers. Maybe even most. But certainly not all. And they’re definitely not true for me.
What the writing process often feels like
To begin with, while I do think it’s great to try to write every day, just to keep up the momentum, realistically, this can be difficult for many writers. Personally, I have a full-time job and a longish commute, so writing Monday-Friday isn’t really an option. Which means I generally only write on the weekends (if I’m lucky).
And although there are times when I’m in the zone and enjoy myself when I’m writing, for the most part, writing is work. And more often than not, writing is hard. There are many days when I don’t feel like opening my laptop and diving into my current work-in-progress. I’d much rather read a book, or watch a movie, or take a nap. Heck, some days, I’d rather clean the bathroom. And then (like anything else) the longer I put off writing, the harder it is to get back in the saddle.
As to the last point, I think it’s fairly obvious by now that I do not feel the need to write. I managed perfectly well without writing for most of my adult life, and would have no trouble giving it up if I had to.
Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t miss some aspects of the process, because I’m sure I would.
Recently, an author I know posted something on Facebook about the love/hate relationship she has with writing. Basically, she said that while she loves creating stories, she hates revising and re-reading her own work. Which made me realize that I have the opposite problem. I usually have to force myself to sit down and draft, but I love having written. I love reading over the story that I’ve created and I love revising what’s already on the page.
But the bottom line is that I don’t think there are any writers who love all aspects of the writing process all the time. And that’s okay.
There is no “right way” to be a writer, and sometimes I worry that maybe there are people out there with stories to tell who think they can’t because they’ve never written anything before, or because they don’t have a degree in English, or because they don’t have time to write on a regular basis, or because they just don’t have that burning need.
But you can still be a writer.
Even if you’re slow. Even if you’ve never written anything before. Even if you don’t have time to write every day. Even if you don’t always love writing.
It doesn’t make you any less capable, or qualified, or competent.
If you write, you’re a writer.
As am I.
How about you? If you’re a writer, do you find it easy to make the time to write? What are your favorite/least favorite parts of the process? If you’re a reader, have you ever thought about writing a book? And if so, what’s the one thing that’s been holding you back?
Until next time!
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Beautiful, realistic yet inspiring post, Jennifer, and with a “happy ending” despite the bumps in the road.
Everyone experiences the process differently. This “X-words per day” deal makes me feel as if writers are factory workers.
And full-time job can be a nightmare (I know this firsthand.)
Still, an important factor is to respect the reader (if one is going to share his/her work with the world.)
I’ve been mistreated lately and as a battered reader I felt I have to add this to the equation. Yes, I know, I should read some JAFF to feel better… (Have I told you that after reading JAFF novels for a long period I found myself dreaming of writing a short story? Not daydreaming. I actually saw in a dream how it’d start etc. That was when I realized I needed a break 😉 )
Happy writing! They always say the second novel is the hardest one.
Author
Thanks so much for your comment, Alexandra! Also, “factory workers” made me laugh! So true! It’s hard when you feel like you’re a failure if you’re not churning out X number of words per day.
I’m not sure if I understand about being mistreated as a reader. Can you elaborate?
Also, I still think you should give writing your own JAFF a try!
Thanks again for stopping by. 🙂
I feel this in my soul. While not published and not even close to it, I have always enjoyed writing more than other creative pursuits, but heck if I’m gonna make an appointed time to do just that with two kids, husband newly in law school and trying to work some nights here and there, and my full time job. My writing comes in spurts and waves. If I’ve lost interest, I cannot keep it coming. It can be months between sentences and then absolutely HATE reading what I’ve written. Lol!
Ironically, though, I always feel the urge to write after talking with an author, like something about the interaction serves to inspire me toward it! 🙂 So maybe I just need to keep a steady line of conversation going with the authors I admire.
Love this post. Have a good day!
Author
Thanks so much, Jami! I’m so glad the post resonated with you. 🙂 And that’s so funny about hating to read what you’ve written. That’s the part I like! LOL! The only way I can force myself to write anything at all is so that I can read it later. If I didn’t like reading what I’d written, I’d probably never type a single word!
Also, if you need inspiration, you can talk to me any time!
Thanks for always being so supportive. 🙂 I hope I get to read your published work someday!
I also get inspired after speaking with certain friends and other writers. There’s something about the exchange of ideas that gets my creative juices flowing.
What a lovely and heartfelt post, Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!
LOL Goodness, yes, I’m with Alexandra Rivers and you re. factory workers. Some days the story flies, many days it doesn’t, and counting the words per day can be so demoralising.
I’m so glad you’re working on your next P&P variation, and I so hope it’s the one we were talking about!! Keeping my fingers crossed here. And keeping my fingers crossed that you’ll take the plunge too, Jami, someday!! I’d love to see your book in print!!
Yay for the creative juices, Elizabeth. I hope they’re overflowing 🙂
Keep writing, lovely ladies, and thanks for all the warm and fuzzy D & E moments, and for all the heartwrenching ones too!
Author
Thanks, Joana! I think I’ve finally gotten back into the swing of things with the writing–and yes, it’s the forced marriage/early marriage scenario we talked about. 🙂 I can’t wait to read your latest!! 🙂
This is so relatable. Writers who boast about their daily word count goals make me wonder what they have that I don’t. What about job, and family, and other responsibilities? I can’t write every day, and the days when I can, I’d rather review what I already wrote than crank out something new. I’m slow, glacier slow. I never wrote a word of fiction until I was 30. Serious imposter syndrome going on around here. I’ll have to remember what you said: “if you write, you’re a writer”. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and encouraging those of us who know that writing really is a challenge.
Author
Thanks so much for your comment, Heather! I’m glad you could relate. And I can relate to everything you said, too! It’s like we’re twins! Except I started writing even later than you did! But I always wonder how every other writer seems to have this *thing* that I don’t have. Maybe it’s talent, or drive, or passion… or all of the above. I’m also incredibly slow, but I think that’s partly because I’m a perfectionist and it takes me a long time (and many revisions) to be satisfied with my writing. Also, I wrote this post mostly as a pep talk for myself, but I’m glad you found it encouraging!
Love your writing! Please persevere and we will all benefit (except maybe your bathroom).
Author
Aww… Thank you SO MUCH, Cheryl! And LOL about the bathroom! Have you tried writing yourself? You seem to have a natural flair for comedy! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your insight into the writing process as you experience it, Jennifer. However it works for you, if it produces another work of the quality of To Conquer Pride, then who are we to complain? If I had the call to write, I can think of nothing more intimidating than setting aside certain times to work and then finding that the words just don’t flow. That would send me into a fugue, I’m pretty sure!
Author
Thanks for the kind words, Anji! Yes, it can be a challenge for sure. But hopefully worthwhile in the end. 🙂
I so enjoyed your post, Jennifer!
I’m funny in that my “itch to write” is to write longhand. If I go more than a couple of days without writing something of some length by hand, my fingers get twitchy. I often start writing a story longhand–just the first few pages–then I revise it as I type it in and then continue typing from there.
Getting the draft down is hard for me; I love revising and editing, though. I’m a freelance proofreader and I grade high school essays for homeschoolers in addition to teaching online classes in writing and literature, again mostly for homeschoolers. So I guess with all of my computer time, I simply crave the scritch of pen against paper, even if it’s just recopying a grocery list. I often write with a glass dip pen and bottled ink since my rheumatoid arthritis makes writing sometimes a painful thing…although I have recently found some modern pens that also don’t make me press down while writing.
I rarely have time to write with teaching, grading, editing, caring for my parents, and home life (three of our four kids have autoimmune issues somewhat like mine, so we have three grown “kids” still at home). But I hope to continue writing poetry, blog posts, and even get back to writing more JAFF (I’ve started a couple of stories but haven’t had time to really dig in).
Warmly,
Susanne 🙂
Author
Hi Susanne, I’m so glad you enjoyed the post! I actually know someone who wrote an entire novel longhand, then went back and typed it all into the computer. I could NEVER do that! If I didn’t have a computer, I can assure you that I would not be writing! Also, I’m the same with drafting. I really have to force myself to do it, but I love revising and editing especially. Best of luck with your own writing! I hope I get to read some of it one day.
Thanks again for stopping by! 🙂
You’re right, Jennifer, that there is not one and only one correct way to write.
Like you, I came to writing later in life. Although I’ve always loved reading and creative pursuits, I never dreamed I would end up writing 8+ novels. Actually, I never dreamed OF writing novels. But here I am. Jane Austen inspired me, and once I got started, I never looked back!
I don’t dislike any particular phase of the writing process, and most days there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. But even though my kids are now grown and I’ve ditched my “day job,” I certainly don’t write every day. I don’t make word count goals. I don’t set deadlines. I don’t meticulously plot a book before beginning. I don’t even write a “rough” first draft. I can’t seem to move on to the next chapter until I’m satisfied that what I’ve already written is just about as good as I can make it. All this to say, we each have our own style of working (and yes, writing anything serious is hard work, even if we’re thoroughly enjoying it!), a process that works for us. And there’s no sense in trying to force everybody into the same mold.
If you want to write, write! – whether simply for your own enjoyment or with the goal of publication. If nothing else, it’s good exercise for your brain! When it stops being fun, find something else to do. That would be my advice. Blessings!
Author
Hi Shannon,
Yes, I completely agree. Every writer is different and we all have our own methods that work for us. I also don’t do much in the way of plotting or outlining (although I feel like I know where the story is going in my head) but I do write very rough and messy first drafts. If I polished each chapter before I moved on, I’d never get passed chapter one!
Regarding writing being fun… the thing is, parts of it are fun for me. As I said, I love revising and I love having written–reading my own story, polishing it, having other people read it. I just hate the drafting stage. HATE IT. But you can’t do the fun stuff until you have a draft to work with so I just have to force myself to do it so I can get to the parts I like, LOL! I always say it’s like if you loved furnishing and decorating houses, but if the only way you could do it was to build the house first. 🙂 Drafting for me is building the house. It’s a necessary evil so I can get to the fun stuff. 🙂
Oh, my “being mistreated” is nothing overdramatic. It’s just that the last 3 books I read/tried to read were somewhere between boring to awful. Ridiculously childish characters, a plot that has more holes in its logic than Emmental cheese… this kind of thing. I read the first two but I think I cured my OCD tendency to finish all books I start with leaving the last one unfinished. (It still bothers me a little…)
That’s why I’ll go back to some JAFF to feel better. 🙂
(The reason I tried to stay away is that I get attacked by writing ideas and I doubt Jane Austen will forgive me. 😉 )
It’s always fun to read your writings, Jennifer!
Author
Ah, got it! Yes, I used to force myself to finish every book I started. I always thought maybe it would get better or at least I had some mild curiosity to see how the story ended… But, I found that if I didn’t like the book by about a quarter of the way in, it almost never got better. And there are too many great books out there to slog through a book I’m not enjoying. So now I do quit reading if the book doesn’t grab me by a certain point. And yes, a good JAFF will always make you feel better! 🙂
Hi Jennifer! Thank you for such a lovely post. It’s made me feel better about how I feel when it comes to writing. I really appreciated it because like you I don’t really fit the mould of a writer. I can live without it and I don’t have to write to survive! Although I enjoy writing – particularly the drafting (I’m opposite to you lol) – there are times when I have to make myself do it.
However, I’m finding that less of a problem now I’m writing JAFF – particularly writing my very first P&P variation – I’m posting a chapter as I write it on the Darcy and Lizzy forum and that’s making a huge difference to my productivity. I’m getting a really positive response too which is amazing.
So thanks again for shining a light on the fact that it’s OK to be a writer who doesn’t always enjoy the writing process and who can live without it! 🙂
Author
Thanks, Elaine! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post! I think I wrote it mostly as a little pep talk for myself but hoped it would help some other writers who had similar feelings. I know when I say things to non-writers like “Ugh! I have to write today!” They think it’s so odd because they just assume that if writing is something you choose to do, you enjoy doing it. It always feels weird to say that I don’t particularly like writing, but I do love having written. 🙂
Congratulations on your first P&P variation! Also, I think you’re very brave to post as you write. I could NEVER do that, because my first drafts are a hot mess, and I don’t even write in order. I shudder to think of anyone reading my ramblings before I dig in with revisions and whip them into shape. But I’m glad you’ve found what motivates you. I can’t wait to get to read the finished product!
I go in fits and starts and always have. I will have a season where I’m writing very frequently and it’s fantastic. I will also write frequently and it will be torture. When I was a full-time student and when my kids were babies, I could go for months without touching a manuscript.
I do not write every day and never really have, except for when I was a journalist and had to make printing deadlines.
I don’t know if I would say I write because I need to. Maybe I do, but I would say I only feel the need when the muse is with me, for lack of better term. Once the Muse leaves, the hard work begins, and that’s not the fun part. now I have an amazing beginning, or a compelling argument, or a fabulous scene, and I somehow have to make a cohesive book out of it.
I do love having written. The same way I love having a painted room in my house but I don’t enjoy the actual painting. I like going back and reading what I’ve read. If I’m really feeling the Muse, I feel like more of a conduit than an inventor, so some of it will feel relatively new to me. I like editing. Go figure.
what’s particularly annoying is that just when you think you have yourself and your method sorted out, it’s completely different with the next book. Not unlike raising a child. Just when you think you know what you’re doing, they go and change.
Author
I think we’re the same in a lot of ways: I also love having written (as opposed to actually doing the writing) and I love reading the story I’ve created. I love revision and I love editing. Drafting, not so much. And I don’t think I have a muse. If I do, he or she is on a permanent vacation. 🙂
I’m more like you but haven’t tried to publish my writing yet. My early writing endeavors were letters to Grandma. I enjoyed keeping in touch with someone I hardly knew except through letters.
Now I enjoy a writer’s group I belong to. We learn from each other as we are inspired to improve through asking questions and making suggestions to volunteer readers.
So, keep writing even though it’s not easy.
Author
Thanks for your comment, Meg! That’s such a great story about writing letters to your Grandma. And yes, writing groups are great. I used to work with a critique group when I was first starting out and I miss it sometimes. But I always feel like I learn from other writers, which is why reading is such an important part of the writing process. I hope you keep writing and that perhaps you decide to publish your work someday.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Loved your thoughts and ‘pep talk’ about writing. Personally, I think it takes great courage to write and publish one’s work for all to see. I see it as a personal extension of the individual who has written it. That in itself is intimidating! Have I ever wanted to write, yes. I actually have several ideas or ‘what if’s’ in my head. One in particular wont leave. Maybe, I should just start typing it out instead of trying to working it all out before I do. I just seem to be making one excuse after another though. Ah, procrastination!
I am so glad you are working on your next book. I just loved your first one!
Author
Thanks, Carole! I think the “pep talk” was mostly for me, but it seems to have worked, LOL! And yes, it definitely does take courage to publish and to put your work out there for everyone to see…and often pick apart. 🙂 But it’s absolutely worth it when you connect with a reader and those are the people I’m writing for. 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed To Conquer Pride and that’s so exciting that you’ve been kicking around some story ideas of your own! I 100% think you should start typing and see where it goes. I’m a pantser myself (meaning that I don’t really outline or plot, though I do have a vague idea of where things are going in my head) so I say no need to work it all out in advance. The world needs more great stories and you’ll never know what you’re capable of until you try. 🙂
Good grief, Jennifer. You and I are birds of a feather. I’ve got a list of 50+ premises/plots, but I find you and I are very similar about our writing. I don’t find the editing/revising difficult at all. A little time consuming on occasion, but almost as enjoyable as writing the story. Writing is also work for me as it doesn’t come easily. And…too many times I succumb to just escaping in a good P&P instead of writing. In fact, I’m more likely to do that instead of ‘work.’
And my muse is probably in the background having an attack of laughter. 🙂
Author
LOL! Yes, I’ll take reading a good P&P variation over writing any day! But I do find that sometimes the reading gets my creative juices flowing so it has it’s benefits. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment and best of luck with your own writing!
Thank you, Jennifer. I’m back working on ‘Darcy Vs Elizabeth.’
Like a few others, I like reading what I wrote. It is usually like “wow, who wrote that?”, inspiring since I think it can only be a God thing!!
Since moving to a college town where most creative types and other professionals and even hobby writers have advanced degrees with really impressive dissertations, I have been increasingly reluctant to get the ideas on paper. I love writing letters and recently found a real typewriter at an auction for just a few dollars. I don’t enjoy the screen time involved with writing, so I thought at least at the brainstorming and draft stage it might be fun and more productive. However, I find that I get into the research and get more ideas and more questions regarding research. Never mind that I’m not witty like Austen so I doubt dialogue I write would be as riveting as the many variations I read. I’ve thought of starting a writing competition where I put my ideas for a story out for manuscripts and pay an award for a winner.
I haven’t yet found a writers group locally, but found a fun mystery writers group in another town not too far. This is particularly funny as I don’t even read mysteries. Another group is immensely professional and “accomplished” and I haven’t been back since a first visit.
As to the comfort of JAFF, it is addictive (not a good thing since I value moderation in all things and seek to resist being mastered by anything), but I immensely appreciate all of you that keep me abundantly supplied!!
Author
Hi Lara,
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! Yes! JAFF is extremely addictive and I think most of us who write it are just as addicted as our readers. There’s a reason we’re doing this! I hope you keep up with your own writing. Writing groups and critique groups are an invaluable way to stay motivated and improve your craft. And the good thing is that you don’t have to join one locally. You can easily join or put together a virtual group. I have worked with CPs (critique partners) from all over the country. We exchange chapters via email and give feedback that way. You can even have meetings via Skype or Facetime or phone calls if you want. The bottom line is that where there’s a will, there’s a way! I wish you much success. 🙂
I’m a reader not a writer. Heck, I did not even keep a diary in my youth. I guess I had my fill writing all those term papers in college. Though part of my job is to write training manuals and I love to edit. There is something about misusing punctuation and grammar that makes my hair stand on end. So, I let those with true talent write and I enjoy the fruits of their labors.
As an aspiring writer (getting started in my late 40s—eeks!) I appreciate your thoughts. Every time I reread P&P, I get the urge to try writing for myself, but until I discovered the rich world of JAFF, I didn’t have the courage. I never felt like I could be a “real” writer because, like you, I haven’t been writing stories my whole life, and I don’t “need” to write everyday. Something about this amazing world of writers who, like me, love Austen and her wonderful, sparkling characters so much that they felt compelled to write about them, has helped me to be brave enough to give writing a go—even if I am not the archetypal author. So thank you for sharing an unsung, but no less valid, style of authorship!