Writing. We make it into such a big deal, don’t we?

You sit down. You pick up a pen or put your fingers on the keyboard. You write.

Or… you don’t.

When you start a project, the energy of creation carries you through the first draft. Or much of it. Or a whole bunch of it. But the first draft is nothing. It’s the fifth that kills you. Then the sixth is a bit easier because now you know what you’re doing. The seventh is a breeze.

So, how do you get through two, three and four? In any long writing project, there will come a time when you loathe the sight of your own office wall. You hate your project. You hate yourself for writing it in the first place and you hate everyone connected with you writing it for any longer.

The energy in the writing place drops, and you feel the will to live leave your body each time you open the file.

That’s normal.

There are all kinds  of ways to get around it. Shortening your working time and making it more regular. Setting goals with rewards. Having your agent call you in a panic every day to see, ‘how you’re getting on’.

But one of the best ways is to write with other people.

Look at the photo above. The energy in the room was electric. If you get some friends in the same state and you all get in the room and open your files and stare at them together, something magical happens.

You all start to write.

Or you don’t, and go out for coffee instead. Either way, it’s good.

Hey, if it was easy, everybody would do it…