Thirteen Ways of Looking at That Thing You Want to Write
Apologies to Wallace Stevens.
I
Yeah, it’ll be hard.
There’s no getting around that.
II
The hard things are the good things.
It feels even better when you’re done.
III
No one is going to ask you to write it.
Except yourself.
IV
No one is going to tell you it’s good, worth it.
Except yourself.
V
No one is waiting for it.
Except yourself.
VI
If you are writing it, keep going.
If it feels impossible, you’re doing it right.
VII
If you think you’re done, read it one more time.
But just once. There’s only some much done it can be.
VIII
If you’ve sent it off into the world, good job.
You’ve done another incredibly hard thing.
IX
Let it have the life it is going to have out there.
You can’t control it once it’s out of your hands.
X
Write the next thing, even if that too is impossible.
You already did it once before.
XI
If it has returned to you, uncrowned, sit with it for a while.
It is ok to be disappointed. Know there are more countrymen than kings.
XII
The writing will always be there. It will never leave you.
You control that. You do that. You have that.
XIII
Yeah, it’ll be hard.
If it were easy then it wouldn’t be worth it.
XOXOXOXO,
Kate
Ok so maybe I should make a print of this, hmmm?
I’m feeling some kindred spirit vibes with you today -- I posted about creative grief just this morning! 😆 These are so great. I’m about 20 books into my writing career (plus many, many shelved) and one thing that really helps me is recognizing that sometimes the book just needs to be written to get OUT of you. And sometimes, it may go somewhere after that - and that’s okay! And other times, it’s literally just a clearing out, to make room for the other stuff that needs to be written. Seeing it as “no wasted writing” has helped so much, especially since as authors as we get fixated on outcomes of what happens *after* the writing. It’s all worth putting down on the page when you play the long game. Glad to discover you here!