I can’t tell you how frustrated it makes me to hear someone say, “If you don’t write every day, you can’t be a writer.” It’s like nails on the chalkboard with a heaping helping of smelly ole guilt.
Do I write every day?
NO.
Should I feel guilty about not writing everyday?
NO!
But do I?
😐
I’ve been cursed with a work ethic that thrives on deadlines and blossoms under pressure. Checklists and I are on a first name basis. But throw me into this crazy world of #amwriting and Authors, and I find myself spiraling.
It is far too easy for me to burn out forcing myself to write Every. Day. Now, of course, it goes without saying that this is only one person’s opinion. Perhaps you, dear reader, are one of those mythical unicorn writers who can write without ceasing (and perhaps even without coffee!). I doubt that will ever be me.
I am a firm believer in “Write when you feel motivated.” It’s very different from “Write when you feel inspired.” Inspiration strikes all the time. In a phrase someone says in passing, in the way cars dance a ballet at a four-way stop, in the struggles and hiccups we face every day. There are stories and inspiration in each of these small moments. But motivation? That’s an entirely different animal.
So instead of making you feel guilty by telling you how easy 🤪 it is to carve out 15 minutes in your overpacked, overworked, and overstuffed schedules, let me do the opposite and tell you to…
TAKE A BREAK!
This is, perhaps, my most important tip for writers, coming from an overworked, overtired teacher/mom who understands all too well the pressures a writer feels when they are not writing. How odd for writers. This immense stress and worry when one is writing and actively crafting worlds and bringing new beings to life. But also, this immense guilt and pressure one feels when not paying attention to these fragile new creations. Like seedlings in spring, we feel they wither away to nothing without the tender nurturing of adding to our word count (or pruning it as the case may be).
I’m here to offer you a gift: freedom. I hereby absolve you from any guilt or pressure you may feel in not turning on your laptop today, not opening your journals or notebooks, and or setting aside your devices for the day, or week… or month. Of course, sadly, I don’t have any actual power in this case, but you do.
As with any job (and writing, though we love it, is a job), you deserve a break. A chance to step away from the stories you’ve so carefully woven and the worlds waiting for your to breathe life into them.
They can wait.
They can wait while you recharge your batteries and remember what it was about writing you fell in love with in the first place. They can wait while you empty your brain in mindless television shows and deliciously fluffy novels. And they can sit on the back burner without you feeling guilty for ignoring them.
This post may not be some magic spell that will whisk that guilt from your heart or cancel out an real deadlines you may have. But hopefully it gives you some comfort that somewhere, hiding out there in cyberspace is a writer who feels a little bit like you. Who chooses to focus on her mental health and her family, her hobbies and her interests, if only occasionally.
And I don’t know about you, but when I find someone with the same heart as me, it makes the world a little less of a hard place to carry.
Laura M. Davis 