The Trials of Writing

Nothing about the writing process is easy, which is why there is little that gets me riled up more than when someone says writing is easy. It's never easy. Putting words to a page that match exactly what is inside your head.... To fully plunge into the innermost emotions.... How do we do it? Intent, research, brainstorming come to mind. But as everyone has their own methods and their own styles, each project does too. It's important to remember too that just because something worked in the beginning, you may have to change the way you're working or tweak a method slightly in order for a project to reach its finishing point. Now I say project, because whether you're writing a memoir, novel, short story, or even something for school, writing is writing, and the same is true for all writing: the rules may change, you just have to figure out how to keep it working. The word "how" must come to mind (how to keep going? how to know which writing method to use? how to get yourself unstuck? how to write the next chapter? or how to plunge into the beginning? how to tap into that well of emotions?). I wish there was a simple answer like, "Just do _____." But there isn't a simple answer. There never is. We can only pursue forward making clumsy errors, get frustrated, get pissed, want to throw out our laptop, delete chapters or an entire book five, ten, thirty times, and then finally hit gold. Or we give up. That is the ultimate truth--if we want to get anywhere as writers, we must face the trials of writing head on, learning to navigate around them ourselves as they arrive.