The Easiest Part Isn’t Always Easy
What do you do when the desire to make art doesn’t come?
I’m a natural storyteller. Many a fencing practice, I share a story about past experiences, people and their exploits, insights and memories of old happenings, and more. The 3 decades of experience playing this unique game (it’s not just fencing I do, but medieval fencing) have made for some pretty cool stories.
At least, in the specific context of fencing and the people who do it with me. As my wife will attest, stories about the local history of this aspect of the game leave her feeling meh.
This can be applied even more broadly to the primary writing I do. Science fiction and fantasy, though more mainstream than they used to be, are still niche genres. They also are incredibly broad, as they tend to include superheroes, monsters, and horror. Still, there are people who love sci-fi/fantasy as well as those who feel meh about it.
In addition to the series I’m currently working on, I have at least 4 other ideas in these genres at some stage of development. Some worldbuilding and plotting have occurred, or at least a vague notion of the universe/scenario has found its way into a file. The point being that I always have a story to tell.
As a writer, my primary expression as a storyteller, the writing is arguably the easiest part. Yet some days, that isn’t easy.
Motivation? Where’d that go?
In the beginning of my writing career, I wrote primarily by the seat of my pants (i.e., a pantser or discovery writer). I sat at the keyboard and let the story flow from my brain to my fingers to the screen. I wrote and completed multiple novels this way.
When the pandemic shut the world down in 2020, I experimented with planning. Before long, I realized this improved my skill as a storyteller, building greater cohesion and a more developed and well-defined plot. As I shifted this into my full-time approach, I set a goal of 1500 words of fiction a day.
Given all the ideas in my head, at one degree of development or another, from the outside, it probably appears that writing is the easiest part. When I have a plan to work from, it certainly looks like I should be able to just sit and work.
Wow, do I wish that were true.
Sometimes the actual act of sitting here, at the keyboard, and writing isn’t as easy as you’d think it should be. First, there are distractions. Email, social media, messenger apps, and my cats. Second, even though I know where I’m going, sometimes I just look at the plan and wonder – what in the hell was I thinking? Why is that what I’m writing here?
I sit to do the supposedly easiest job and find no desire to do it. It takes a force of will to make myself get it done. My motivation to tell the story isn’t less; it’s just absent from time to time.
Why is that, do you think?
The easiest part might be easy, but it’s still work
I debated sharing this bit of navel gazing for a couple of reasons. First, there’s a degree of social consciousness nagging at me. While I have friends struggling at their jobs, and other friends looking for meaningful work, I feel guilty that I have the ability to do this as I do. Since my chosen path in life isn’t standard, and I recognize that it’s due to a degree of privilege I enjoy that I get to do this, it feels a bit whiny or disingenuous to share how it’s not always easy.
It is, however, still work. I’m not sitting on the beach with a cold beverage watching the tides roll in and out. It takes effort to do this. And like anything and everything in the world that takes effort, it’s not always easy to do.
As a solo authorpreneur, I’m accountable almost entirely to myself. Nobody else is tracking my hours, paying attention to when I’m at my desk or not, and checking in with me. Yes, I have resources I can use to that end (I’m on a Discord with other indie authors who help one another), but only when I choose to utilize them.
Doing the work is an inside job. Nobody outside of my head, heart, and soul can motivate me to get my shit done. But it’s important to recognize that it is work, and sometimes the seemingly easiest part isn’t easy at all.
Like everyone else, I sometimes sleep like crap. There are days I feel less-than at my best. And sometimes, despite knowing the plan for the story I’m working on telling, the actual effort to put it on the screen is challenging.
The definition of easy is subjective
If I don’t do the work, you don’t see the book (or blog). How you define the ease of the process is utterly subjective.
It turns out, once I began to write as a planner rather than a pantser, I’m a fast writer. Since 2020, I’ve planned and written 8 Forgotten Fodder novels, 3 Savagespace novels, a standalone, the last Void Incursion novel, and 4 Gentleman Space Pirate books. That’s 17 books in 6 years. Let’s say, on average, each book is 50,000 words (I’m not taking the time to get the actual average of my word count, but 50k is likely an underestimate). That comes out to 850,000 total words. That’s almost double the word count of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which Tolkien wrote over 12 years.
Despite writing that much, that fast, I still often struggle to accept that I work hard in my non-traditional job. Sometimes I also think what I do is easy and anyone can do it – but I know that’s not true. What takes me half an hour to write, others need a day for. Easy is subjective.
Hence, when the subjectively easiest part isn’t easy, it’s important to give yourself grace and recognize and acknowledge that’s just part and parcel of the human experience. It’s okay to struggle and also okay to fail from time to time. Knowing this, you can make choices and decisions to move past those times and do the work.
The easiest part isn’t always easy, but that’s true of everything in life, isn’t it?
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own authentic creator, whatever form that takes?
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