If It Were Easy...

...Everyone Would Do It... The fact that it's hard is what makes it so great.

I was watching some movie this weekend, and a character said that. I think it may have been Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own. At any rate, they weren't talking about writing...but baseball. But what this character said is true, and totally got me thinking about the pursuit of writing. It's so TRUE.

Seriously... if writing were easy, everyone would be doing it.

I can't tell you how much I beat myself up sometimes. I keep thinking that this whole writing gig should be getting easier. I've written two books--torn them both apart--and built them back up. Shouldn't I know what the heck I'm doing by now? Yet despite this, I still struggle. I still feel like WIS is never going to be finished--that I don't know what I'm doing. That my writing is total crap and I'm the worst writer to ever put words on the page.

It frustrates me to no end that the hardest thing for me to do is to sit my dang butt down in a chair and just start writing. That I piss and moan about how I'm tired...that I can't write when I've got a headache...that I have a million and one other things to do. ANYTHING to keep me from actually sitting down. It makes NO sense. But the truth of the matter is--writing is HARD. And I'm not talking about the whole concept of stringing words together, but the very act of sitting down--hour after hour, day after day, and just seeing a book through from start to finish. It takes a lot of will and determination, and just plain old tenacity. The ability to work through the low patches when you truly are writing shit. The ability to push away the distractions of the outside world. The patience to watch a small kernel of an idea grow slowly over time...I mean, for the love of Pete, grass grows faster!

Not everyone has everything it takes. I mean, how many people have you heard say that they want to write a book? How many of them actually have or will?

Not many.

I have to remind myself of that sometimes. Especially when I'm hitting a rough patch and my confidence wanes. It's times like these I just have to put my head down and keep pushing through. Why? Because I know how it feels to coast down the other side of the hill. The hard work it takes to get there is worth the gratification and pride of knowing you've completed a book. It's what makes writing truly great. The end product. When you can finally look back at the total wreck you were while you were writing the book and be able to say..."Eh, that wasn't so bad!" LOL.

I'll get there eventually. Then with the next book, I expect to be right back where I am now.

Ah. Writing.