The Ups and Downs of Writing

Photo credit: NormLanier on Flickr

So I’m in the middle of revision mode right now, working on a MS that I was about 95% sure I’d trunk and never look at again after I finished the first draft.

And. Well. I was wrong. Clearly.

Writing is an emotional, internal, weird thing. It tricks our brains into thinking we’re literary geniuses one day (or at least plot geniuses, or character geniuses, or otherwise this manuscript is the best thing ever geniuses), then has us pounding our faces on the keyboard the next, ready to toss every word we’ve ever written ever in the trash. Sometimes that cycle happens several times in a week. Or day, really. It happens pretty darn often.

And you know? It’s hard. It’s really legitimately tough to have confidence in your work and yourself one minute, and deal with crushing, joy-sucking doubt the next. It’s hard to call yourself a writer when you look at your work and wonder what the hell you’re thinking writing this nonsense.

It’s also totally 150% normal.

There are so many ups and downs to the writing life even before you attempt to get published (and after? Ha. Don’t even get me started).

But here’s the thing: writers of all stages, from brand new to published several times over all go through this. I’m not entirely sure why (though I’m guessing there’s some psychological explanation for it), though my guess is it has something to do with the fact that we writers tend to be internal types, and writing sort of forces us to be super internally focused, and the whole writing thing is super subjective and to be honest, the thought of showing people your writing can be kind of terrifying sometimes. Especially because those nagging doubts like to start making themselves known right about the time you hit send.

So.

But there is good news to all this, namely that it really truly is completely normal, and just about every writer will, at some point, experience it (probably many times over). Which is good because when you experience it, you can know you’re really truly and honestly not alone.

Know the feeling won’t last.

Know other writers understand.

Know that this writing thing is hard, but what you’re doing? It’s fantastic and amazing and so very awesome. So go you.

Have you experienced the emotional ups and downs of writing? What do you do to help overcome it? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Writer @Ava_Jae blogs about the emotional ups and downs of writing. What do you think? (Click to tweet)  

Writer @Ava_Jae says it's normal to doubt your writing ability one day and love your WIP the next. What do you think? (Click to tweet)