So you think writing is easy ...

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Writing is easy. Putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and trusting that the words will come is a skill you can master. No-one is saying what comes out will be good but it easy to do - at least compared to what follows.

At some stage, you have to turn it into something worth reading. Choose the right words. Make those sentences easy to read. Check your grammar. Breathe life into those characters. Clarify, clarify, clarify. 

Worse still, you have to force a recognisable structure onto your beast, to make it viable, accessible and relatable. You have to tame that sucker into something someone might publish or produce. That’s when the heartache begins. For how do you reign in and contain your creation, yet keep the creative spark alive?

It’s something most (all?) writers wrestle with daily. I have no suggestions other than just keep on writing. And take comfort in the words of those who have gone before you.

“When people say, ‘Oh, I just love writing!’ I know they’re full of crap. They’re probably lousy writers who are regurgitating their daily thoughts in a journal. Actual writing is hard work. Even when you have the flow and it’s going well, it’s still incredibly taxing. My deepest nights of sleep are after days of having to write ten pages.” ~ John August

“Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.” ~ Gene Fowler

“Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.” ~ Graycie Harmon

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”~ Joseph Heller

“I write one page of masterpiece to 99 pages of shit.” ~ Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” ~ Annie Lamott

“Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.” ~ Norman Mailer

“When you start writing, you’re 98% pure writer and 2% critic. After you’ve written for a length of time, you’ve learned a great deal about your craft, and you’ve become 2% pure writer and 98% critic. It’s like writing uphill.” ~David Westheimer