Blood, Sweat, and Ink

Guys, writing is hard.

Like, I have to put in effort and stuff. The words don’t just show up on the screen. People don’t praise me for my genius like they should. And I have to, like, actually be consistent in what I write? It’s such a drag! I think I’ll just go watch more Youtube videos on how to be a better writer instead of actually writing…

…

OK, maybe I got a little whiny there.

A little.

Just a titch.

Something that’s so easy to forget, though: Writing is work. And work is difficult. You don’t always feel like going to work, do you? You don’t always want to put in effort.

Sometimes writing can be easy. Sometimes words just breeze by as I type them. Stories almost write themselves!

But… if I only wrote when it was easy, I wouldn’t be writing much. Laziness is a constant creeping threat that does not go away unless you shoot it in the face with discipline and fear and maybe a blaster. Pew pew! Die, laziness!

…it didn’t die.

Stupid immortal laziness.

I’ve been working on this project for a few weeks now, and will likely be concentrating on it at least through the summer. Maybe it’ll go faster, but then there’s revisions and rewrites and edits and maybe even some revisions. You never know. And when you’re working on a longer project, trying to increase your word count is a huge thing. When I focus on short stories, word count is still a goal, but the percentage of the story you’ve completed with 1000 words is much higher than doing 1000 words a day for this monster project.

I’ll tell you, there are some days that I don’t get to work on it. I’m still a pastor, and my ministry does come first. And my family comes before that. So writing doesn’t happen every day. It’s frustrating, but it’s the truth of the situation.

The problem with that is that the laziness slug can use those true and good priorities as excuses to not write when I do have time. “You should spend more time with your kids. Shouldn’t you be working on that project for the church?” And while those things aren’t bad at all, more often they’re an excuse to avoid things that take more effort.

And yes – sometimes pursuing ministry takes less energy than writing for fun.

My definition of fun may be weirder than yours.

And when I do sit down to write, well, we have to keep to our traditions: Listen to this song to get in the mood, and play a game of solitaire to clear the mind. (Yes, I actually do this. Don’t judge me.) Oh, you didn’t win that game. Better make it three games. Or five.

Gar! Laziness slug, begone! I shoot you in the face with my write-o-matic!

…laziness slug is still immortal.

But there is some good news: My word count is jumping higher. 1000 words a night used to be pretty average for me. Now, when I do writing, I get closer to two or three times that. Hooray!

And now I should probably write a blog post instead of working on that project.

Oh, wait.

Anyway – what kind of blaster do you use to shoot the immortal laziness slug? How do you keep on task even when writing is work?