Learning how to write is easy.

But actually being a writer is not.

Photo from istockphoto.com.

If there is one consistent dream that I have had throughout my life it is to be a writer. More than a few times I have wondered what it would be like to write something that people all around the world read and are affected by. I’ve daydreamed about meeting those people and hearing first hand what they thought of my work as well the feeling of walking into a bookstore and seeing something that I created sitting there on a shelf.

The thing about the dream of being a writer is that it’s one that many people have but not everyone gets to live out. Nowadays, however, there are more pathways to becoming a writer than there has ever been before. Self-publishing has opened the door for people to skip the traditional process of having to find a publisher and get a book deal first. The Internet has made it possible for anyone to get their writing out there in a variety of different forms, whether it’s essays, articles, fiction, non-fiction, etc.

There are more resources than ever before to help up-and-coming writers learn the craft and develop the skills they will need to become successful. There are a multitude of classes, seminars, workshops, and free YouTube videos available. Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson regularly posts videos from his Science-fiction and Fantasy writing course at BYU. There are also mountains of books that have been written about how to write books, no matter the genre. I tell you all this to drive the point home that it has never been easier to find the means to help you become a writer than it is today.

So why is writing so hard for me then?

That is the question that has plagued me for years. I’ve bought the books. I’ve watched the videos. I’ve even paid for some of the courses. Yet, despite all this, I remain unable to write a complete book. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing though. I do post things from time to time here on Substack, but every time that I have attempted to sit down and start putting a book together I always end up with the same result: nothing. It’s like my brain just empties itself. I end up staring at my monitor and just watching the cursor blink before I eventually give up and do something else.

I have tried many times to diagnose what the problem is. Do I just not have the right environment? Am I too busy? Too distracted? Is there some other book or course out there that I need to finally unlock my personal font of creativity? One by one I went through all of these questions and the many answers I came up with until I finally settled on the answer that ultimately made the most sense.

The problem is me.

I know this because this is something that afflicts many aspiring writers. They want to write, but when it comes time to start writing and actually produce text it never seems to come together. So what’s the solution? The writers who have found success in this field give advice about how to solve this problem and all their advice basically amounts to this: if you want to be a writer then you must write.

Sure, that might seem like a head-scratcher on the surface. It stands to reason that if you want to be a writer you have to actually write something. How is that advice helpful at all? Contrary to how it might sound, this isn’t a condescending or flippant answer at all. It’s actually solid advice that every writer needs to hear from time to time, even experienced ones. It’s one thing to talk about writing, to read books about writing, to watch videos or listen to podcasts about writing. Those are all fine and good. But eventually all of the talking, reading, and listening has to come to an end and the actual writing must begin. If words are never put to a page then the book, article, essay, post, etc. is never going to happen. I have seen so many professional writers talk about how they can’t afford to have writers block. At the end of the day their job is to write whether they feel inspired to or not. So what do they do? They write, even if what they are producing is total garbage that will get thrown out fifteen minutes later. But it’s in the process of writing junk that the good stuff eventually starts to show up. Writing is more about perspiration than inspiration it seems, although a little inspiration certainly never hurts.

As G.I. Joe always said, knowing is half the battle. I know what the issue is, but now I have to put in the work to do something about it. I’m not sure just yet exactly what kind of writing I want to do. I gravitate towards sci-fi and fantasy, but lately I’ve been drawn towards non-fiction as well. Whichever one I end up going with is really not the most important thing to me. I just want to be able to say that I sat down and wrote a complete work from start to finish. Hopefully one day I will be able to write a follow-up post to this where I can tell you all about what that is.