Being a writer can be weird. Last week I wrote a 700-word piece and it took all my gumption, brain effort, and about 18 hrs of work. I probably wrote 4,000 words in the process of eeking out a mere 700. By the time I finally hit the “send” button on the mini-project, I was barely moderately happy with the result. It was definitely not the best thing I’d ever written, but I had to stop editing just hit submit.
Fast forward to this week, and in two hours, I just rattled off 700 words that I’m really pleased with. I’m not exactly sure what the difference was between the two projects other than my mojo was working for one and not the other.
But that’s life, right?
Sometimes things come easy, but sometimes we have to work for them. The contrast in my easy writing day versus hard writing day is a reminder to me (and hopefully to any writer) to keep working.
Keep writing even when writing is hard and tedious because the result is at least three-fold –
1. You finish the written product, so your imagined book or blog becomes a reality.
2. You’re building discipline, which will help hard writing days get easier.
3. You’re building skill in your craft.
Press on in the tough writing days and be grateful for the easy ones. You’ll never regret the effort. I’m cheering you on. Cheer me on, too.