6 Beautiful Burdens of Being A Writer
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” — Virginia Woolf
1. The need to write about every important moment
… Even when you’re in the midst of the moment itself. When we are in the middle of an event or special experience that we don’t want to forget, we often want to write about it then and there.
Writers often feel things on a far deeper level and analyse even the smallest of moments. We want to capture these important pieces of information in the most articulate way possible to keep the moment with us forever.
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” — Virginia Woolf
2. The ideas that come to us at the most inconvenient of times and locations
Our best ideas are unlikely to ever come to us when we are sitting down with a blank screen or an empty notebook. They’ll come to us on the train commuting to and from work. They’ll come to us mid-shampoo.
We will be triggered by a word, a sound, a news article, a seemingly insignificant conversation. Our minds are always wired to catch inspiration from every corner of our world. We are always ‘on’ to all of life’s experiences to ensure we can draw everything we can from the experience.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. — Orson Scott
3. The guilt we feel when we’re not writing
Although it is frequently said that reading is one of the best things you can do to better your writing, it’s hard to not feel guilty about spending your time doing anything but mastering your writing craft. Whether you’re reading books, watching Netflix, going out with friends, there’s always a niggling feeling of guilt at the back of your mind. You always feel like you should be writing.
4. The levels of procrastination we go to in order to avoid writing anything at all…
A lot of us are plagued with what can only really be described as “writer’s block” — whether you believe in the concept or not.
Sometimes when we hit a bump in the road with our writing, whether it be due to feeling uninspired, realising a plot hole, or losing confidence, we sometimes seek out other ways to feel productive in our writing.
We will find ourselves in black holes of YouTube videos, Medium articles and podcasts by well-known writers. We’ll exhaust all topics — curing writer’s block, getting inspired, character development tips. We will spend days (sometimes weeks) reading writing how-tos and advice articles.
These can be beneficial and inspiring a lot of the time, but we can sometimes feel a false sense of accomplishment from reading these. Not to mention a lot of the advice can be contradictory, and too much advice can make your head feel like it’s going to implode.
5. The discomfort that comes from calling yourself a writer
It took me a long time to realise there’s really no such thing as an ‘aspiring’ writer. You don’t have to be a published writer or a paid writer to have the luxury of removing the ‘aspiring’ section of that title.
If you write, you’re a writer.
“There is no such thing as an “aspiring writer” — you are a writer. Period.” ― Matthew Reilly
6. The insatiable desire to write
When it’s in your nature to write, sometimes that urge feels like a fire running through your veins. You must write. The frustration can come from not knowing what to write about, or not having the time or ability to priortise your passion over all else. A lot of us just want a few months of solitude in a cabin in the woods, to immerse ourselves in our writing projects with no other worries in the world.
“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”
― Franz Kafka
