Over the weekend I had some terrible coffee with a writing colleague. She mentioned to me that she had not written much lately because she couldn't think of how to finish the story she was working on. I asked why she hadn't tried starting something new to refresh her mind and her response was expected....I don't want to start something new until I've perfected what I'm working on now. Many writers feel this way, which I'm afraid to say is why many writers suffer from chronic writer's block. Many writer's think that perfecting their current work is the only way to become successful. However a writer who thinks that their first draft of anything is going to be perfect is either foolish or insane.
For example Hemingway said he wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls nearly 17 times before he felt it came close to perfection. That means that all of us amateur writers need to write something at least 30 times before it can be considered "good". We also need to work on several pieces to keep our mind fresh. When a writer gets stuck on one story and doesn't exercise their creative mind in another way they could be stuck for years. Trust me...I did it. I had been working on a novel and when I got stuck I just stopped writing for nearly two years. I felt like if I couldn't move forward on that one novel then I was no writer at all. Not only did thinking that way send me into a deep depression it also made me the biggest idiot in the world.
As writers we have an obsessive need to express our creativity through the written word. So when that need is blocked by our own fear of failure we become empty. That is why I suggest to anyone who writes to always work on several pieces at once. Whether you are working on a novel and in your spare time you write short stories or if you spend your spare time writing terrible poetry like myself....always be writing. Hell write in a journal for all I care just WRITE. If you stop writing as a writer you stop living!
Sometimes I just scroll through photos on tumblr and try to find something that inspires me to write whether its a picture or someone's story. In fact I did that this morning (see below). Even if its just blurbs here and there you should always be writing. I'm hoping my colleague took my advice to continue writing because she's damn good at it and I hope you take my advice too.
-Much Love, Maggie V
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