Sports is on my mind right now.
No, not because my kids are all athletes, although I am reminded every day of this fact when I have to remember put protein on the table (I'm kind of protein-phobic myself) and when we have to help them balance exam season with hours and hours of sports practice this month.
Sports is on my mind because writing is such a slog. Here's an excerpt from one of my recent Accountability newsletters (you can sign up for these at my editing website, Apollo Grannus Books).
One thing that we need to all get straight is that the writer's path is hard. Don't pretend that you're getting the work done when you're not–that's super unhelpful in the long run. Why not just step back and say it out loud–writing is HARD. You can say it in any fashion you want. You can say:
- I thought it would be easier, so I wasn't ready for the reality
- I got off to a great start but then I just pooped out
- I got bogged down in all the things I don't know how to do, and the things that I suck at
- I think I'm doing good work but I don't know what direction to head in, so I'm stuck
- I'm overloaded with advice, critiques, and information, and now I don't know what to do
If you took the above statements and substituted the image of the talented athlete, it wouldn't sound strange at all, would it? Every athlete has encountered all of those feelings, and the answer is very simple–do the work. Show up, practice, get better.
Likewise, writers are verbal athletes. Don't get in your own way by saying that you're productive if you're not. The three categories of work that count are:
- word count/page count
- structural/editing work
- deliberate rest (all athletes need rest and recovery!)
Anything else is probably an excuse. Or in Steven Pressfield's lingo, Resistance.
I'll be back with this metaphor again and again.
