Writing is Hard but so is Taking the Ring to Mordor

 

I think this ALL the time!  I seems like writing comes so much more naturally to everyone else.  I mean, Brandon Sanderson can sit and write for 8-10 hours a day and I’m over here trying to keep myself from thinking about the ice cream in the freezer so I don’t get out of my seat for the seventh million time in ten minutes.

When I finally finish my ten-page story I feel like I’ve been hunted by the nine riders, stalked by a schizophrenic mole-looking creature who only knows one word (precious), and carried an all-powerful ring that will only make you go stark-raving mad if you hang on to it for too long.  In other words; finishing a story is like traveling to Mordor and back.

(This is me when I finally finish a story.  Yes, the rigors of writing leave your face smeared with dirt and scattered with scratches.  You didn’t know that?)

But before I can celebrate my hard-one victory, I realize that Brandon Sanderson’s book totaled 1,087 pages.  Talk about wanting to crumple up your ten pages and throw them into the fires of Mordor.

I think I’ll get that ice cream now and eat the whole carton.

How do you come up with enough words to fill 1,087 pages?  And still have them make sense?!  I mean, sure.  I could write 1,087 pages *crosses fingers behind back* but it would be so full of plot holes, and scenes that had nothing to do with the story, and so many characters that my readers’ heads would explode.  (This is why I’ve never tried writing a book; I don’t want to be liable for exploding heads).

That’s it.  I should give up writing.  Let’s face it; Writing is harder for me than everyone else.  It takes me an hour to come up with a hundred words because I’m like Kronk in Emperors New Groove.

(I want to find the perfect way to say this, but there are just too many options!)

Ok, ok.  I shouldn’t compare myself to other writers.  There’s a lot of talent out there, but that doesn’t make me less talented.  Besides, every word I do write is a drop in the vast amount of practice needed to be a successful writer.  It’s alright if writing is hard.  It isn’t supposed to be easy.  Like Ernest Hemingway said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” 

That’s not painful at all.

Writing is a challenge, and it’s ok to admit that to yourself.  It doesn’t have to flow from your fingertips as effortlessly as whipped cream on a silk slide (actually, I don’t think the whipped cream would go anywhere, but just pretend that you get that metaphor).   You may think that you’re the only one struggling with it, but guess what?

You aren’t.

Want to know a secret?  (Ok, well it’s not exactly a secret, but act surprised anyway).  It took Sanderson twelve novels before he was published.  Twelve of them!  What was wrong with the guy? Didn’t he realize that writing was too hard for him?

No, he didn’t.  Because it wasn’t.  Writing is a process that gets better with time.  The more you write, the better you get.

What would have happened if he’d given up after that 12th novel?  We wouldn’t have impossibly long books to read, that’s what!

(A Sanderson book)

I’m sure sometimes he thought, “This writing thing is so much harder for me than everyone else,” but he didn’t let that stop him.  And because he kept going, he is now a best-selling author with more than 20 books and novellas published.  The guy is so popular, that his signings can last up to five hours!  (He needs someone to build him a robot arm that can sign things for him.  I mean, he probably has to wear a cast after all that).

The next time that you think writing is only difficult for you, be glad that you aren’t Sanderson in an arm cast.

And just in case I didn’t inspire you to keep writing, here’s Tom Hiddleston.

 

You’re inspired now, aren’t you?