Writing is appallingly hard work
Published by on March 8th, 2008
The only thing you need as a writer is stamina because you have just got to be able to finish your book. Most people can’t. That’s the whole trick of it. I love writing, but it is appallingly hard work.
Advice from successful crime author Minnette Walters over at her website. Being well entrenched in the process of creating a novel, I have to say that is utterly true: it is appallingly hard work.
Tonight is a prime example for I simply do not want to be writing! But, due to day-job workloads in recent weeks, I was unable to get ahead on my writing and audio episode production schedule for Persistent Spirit, meaning if I do not write tonight, there will be no episode 10 tomorrow. And that simply won’t do.
There are no shortcuts, there are no easy routes to the end, there is no avoiding the simple truth that words have to be written to make a book. It does not help that I am at that very tricky stage in the story right now, that indistinct mid-ground between the initial setting of the pieces and situations, and the major revelations and life-altering events; a place where ’stuff happens’ to move the story along closer to its conclusion, step by keyboard-crunching step.
Imagine this: you must, in addition to your current life for the next six months at least, find 20 hours per week in which you will invest effort, concentration, and enforced creativity. Could you do that? Could you turn down socialising with friends to finish a chapter, cut down how often you spend time with your family, and rule out the time spent watching your favourite television programmes. All to sit in a room on your own and type furiously into a computer of what is in your head and struggle desperately not to click that Stumbleupon button just one more time. And that is by no means the end for, if you are able to maintain it, that effort merely brings you a single complete draft of the novel which will almost certainly require further editing, then marketing and promotion. This is why so many would-be authors never complete their novels, and why I have until now been unable to get close to completion. It is a test of endurance, but the reward is worth every long night staring into the computer screen. I would not trade this opportunity for the world.
2 Responses to “Writing is appallingly hard work”
March 8th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
This week I’ve written four short stories, half a dozen poems and a number of short essays, as well as nearly a dozen short political comments and scores of comments on blogs.
I’ve also got chronic fatigue syndrome. I don’t think stamina, in a physical sense, comes into it. Dtermination is what you need more than anything else.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Anthony, those are some impressive numbers. My guess is, unlike myself, you are not also juggling a demanding 60-70 hour per week, full-time job
When you are able to create that much work in a week, are you able to maintain suitably high quality, marketable writing?