Writing as Work–and Love
Jun 21, 2010 
I have a friend who is, I think, a good writer. I haven’t actually read anything she’s written because she’s a bit shy about sharing it, but she’s a fantastic editor, a terribly creative person, and she reads about ten times as much as I do, and so I’d put money on the assumption that she’s probably not half bad. She always says, though, that she’s not sure she’s interested in seeking publication, for fear that writing would become work, and therefore not as much fun.
I must admit I’ve had this fear once or twice (okay, so that’s an understatement). I love music, and when I was in grade school I couldn’t wait to join orchestra and play the viola. A year into it I was like “Ugh, this sucks,” and switched to the flute. A couple years after that I switched to the oboe. And a couple of years after that I quit entirely, because frankly, practicing enough to actually be halfway decent (and I’m too competitive not to do that) made me hate the instrument. In college I picked up the guitar, taught myself, and just play for myself, not for anyone else, and certainly not for a music teacher or band. And six years or so later, I still love it.
So when I embarked on the whole 500-1000 words/day promise to myself, I worried that at some point along the way I’d grow to hate writing, if I was forcing myself to do it. What eventually convinced me that I had to try it, though, was that I knew I could never be a professional author if I couldn’t make writing my job and still love it enough to do it every day. On the one hand, if I tried it and killed my love of writing, I would have killed my dream of becoming a successful novelist, and that particular failure is one of my greatest fears. And if I never tried it, I’d at least always have that dream, the potential to get serious one day. On the other hand, though, if I never buckled down, even if doing it meant realizing it wasn’t for me, I’d never actually realize the dream either.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially now that my daily minimum has gone from 500 words a day to somewhere around 2500 words a day (although the technical minimum is still 500 words a day, I have to write a lot more than that on average to finish the book by my July 5th deadline). It’s quite definitely work now, forcing myself to sit down and write when I could be walking to the beach, going downtown to see the sights of Melbourne, hanging out with my friends here that I see so rarely when I’m living in the U.S.
So, just a little over three months from the day I started this 500 words/day commitment, has my love of writing changed?
Yes. Hands down. I don’t think it’s possible for it not to have changed. But at the risk of sounding like a total liar, I think my love of writing has actually grown stronger. It’s a different kind of love, though. It’s a much more complicated love. I think my love of writing used to be the daydreamy, crushy love you get in high school, or you get on characters in books or TV, where you sigh and fantasize about the day you’ll become an author (or marry Mr. Darcy as the case may be), and your ups and downs are all about whether your crush smiled at you or not (or if your mom/best friend/internet people liked your latest chapter). Now, if I’m allowed to sound completely pretentious, I think my love of writing is like the love of a long-term couple. Yeah, you fight now and then (and some days you have to cry and sweat just to get to 500 words), but mostly you work hard at the relationship, every day, and it becomes stronger for it. It’s not a fantasy, and it’s not always awesome, and in fact sometimes it’s downright horrendous. But it’s there, every day, and as long as you keep working on it, it’ll always be there.
So yeah, doing it every day has definitely changed my relationship with writing. But it’s been a change for the better. And now I know I can do it, which is better than the tenuous soap bubble of a high school crush any day.
Okay, no more metaphors for me. What about you guys? I know a couple of you have been doing daily writing goals too–has it changed the way you write, or feel about writing? And even if you haven’t, I’d love to hear about any forays into making writing a job, or the fear that keeps you from it, or the choices, good or bad, that you’ve made in relation to professional writing.
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I feel like I’ve reached the comfortable place with my writing. It’s a routine that feels natural and works. No more of the days of feverishly writing 3000+ words only to have weeks of nothing at all follow.
Yeah, I definitely agree. That’s not to say sporadic writing doesn’t work for some people, but I’ve discovered (after years of BEING a sporadic writer) that it doesn’t work for me so well.
Has the 500-words-a-day challenge changed my writing? Hell. Yes! And so much for the better.
Before, I was a sporadic writer. Clearly, that method doesn’t work for me. I would go on writing marathons of 3,000+ word days, then blow off writing when I was too “busy” to squeeze it in or too “uninspired”. Which is BS, because writing 500 words only takes me ten minutes if I really try, but my goals were alwways a little unrealistic for where I was at in the WIP. And when I got stuck I’d tell myself, okay, a few days of R&R. But those days turned into weeks then months. And then I’d start on another project.
Writing a minimum per day, even when I have to force myself (like last night… it was a painful 500 word night that I struggled with for the better part of forty-five minutes) has improved my writing a lot. Maybe not the quality of writing, but certainly the attitude with which I face it everyday now. I now have this stubborn determination to finish what I started–even if I feel like it’s only crawling along. And attitude towards writing is so, so important. Still don’t know if that’s what I’ll be doing down the road, but for now it’s a hobby that I’m steadily working at.
It’s soooo awesome to hear how well it’s working for you. I totally agree with what you’ve said about how even the days where you have to struggle to get 500 words helps with your attitude. You’re so right that the daily minimum isn’t so much about quality as it is about how you approach the act of writing.
Whoohoo! We should start a 500 words-a-day club. 😉
I’ve been a sporadic writer the last few years but I’ve been wondering over writing and how commited I really was to it..so I’ve decided to take up the 500 words a day challenge (can’t really make excuses for it now that I’m on a winter break) but I hope that the habit will carry over so I can figure out what my rythmn is. So I’ll see what changes in time 🙂 I guess I’m just writing for pleasure at the moment.
I worry that if I ever get published, I will start seeing writing as a job. I mean, if there are deadlines and I have to work forcefully.
Of course, I hope my love for writing never changes. At times, it’s almost my favourite procrastination hobby but it’s also just… what I do. And if anything happened to make me hate it… Gah, I’d be left with nothing!