I remember when writing used to feel easy. How effortless it was to type at a keyboard relentlessly, ideas pouring from my youthful brain, back when life had very little worries. This was a period I look back on and wish I never took for granted, because now, as an adult, I no longer have as many hours to write away.
Now, that eagerness to write all the time is drowned by work, social life, and the simple day-to-day challenges that constantly appear from nowhere. This was only amplified by my expectations that I should be writing A LOT, constantly, or not at all – an incredibly unrealistic goal that was only pushing me further away from what I loved most.
You see, with social media’s portrayal of productivity becoming increasingly difficult to relate to – believing we can never live up to the same level of efficiency – the easier it is to feel like giving up, or push ourselves towards burn out.
I very quickly became a victim of this. I found myself writing loads in between my school breaks and then not touching my prolonged literary projects for months, sometimes even years. Why such extreme break periods? I simply could not meet the expectation I’d set for myself, wanting too much and only setting up for failure, quickly experiencing major burnout despite wanting to continue writing. I’d convinced myself that writing sessions meant producing thousands of words at a time every time. If I were to write anything less it wasn’t worth trying to write at all.
Recognising this pattern had me questioning if I was cut out to be a writer, and at one point even put me off altogether, doubtful over if I could sit down and write anymore.
But I knew how much I loved to write, and how fulfilling it was to add to my work and escape from reality during the process. It was something I’d treasured my whole life and certainly not a passion I was willing to give up on that easily.
However, I knew I couldn’t just continue the mindset I’d previously had, wanting to start from scratch and create a discipline that was going to build me up rather than keep me at the bottom.
I started being less harsh on myself about how many words I produced, reminding myself that a couple hundred was better than none, even if it wasn’t the thousands I’d previously hoped would constantly flow onto the page. It was a reminder difficult to convince myself of, still making comparisons with writers I scrolled past on social media. But I kept my head forward, pushing through the doubts to write something instead of nothing.
Instead of spending a whole day trying to write thousands of words for a couple weeks and then leaving my manuscript to collect dust, I was now writing briefly for fifteen to thirty minutes every day, collecting a couple or so hundred words at a time. While not seeming like much, I soon noticed the subtle progress I was making, while also finding that pleasure in writing beginning to come back again.
To keep this habit up I created a physical word count log that I write in every single day. I note the number of new words I’ve written, and update the existing word count of my project, keeping this in a journal that I can look back on and see the slow but promising progress.
As a writer, success shouldn’t be found in the big and intimidating goals you set for yourself, because they will never be fulfilled the way you want them to be. It is instead the small milestones made each day, even as small as a dozen words, that are going to help you chip away at the end-goal sooner.
Gently guiding yourself, rather than forcing an impractical amount of work onto your conscience, will inevitably quicken your progress. It is this gradual satisfaction, slow and steady, that is the most rewarding overall. Wanting to rush and do so much at once lead to a wall impossible to break down.
So, remind yourself as I have that a little goes beyond a long way, and that it is THE way if you want to succeed in discipline rather than motivation, because that guiding light can only last for so long before it eventually snuffs out.
Sit yourself down and write, just for a little bit, every day, even when you don’t want to, and be patient. You’ll be surprised how far you go!
Alessandra Donnelly
Editing Intern