Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Insecure Writer's Support Group

It's the first Wednesday of the month and time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. I am honored to be one of this month's co-hosts, along with Donna Hole, LG Keltner, Lisa Buie-Collard, and of course, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're an insecure writer or just looking to give some support to those of us who are, check us out here!

Two days ago a friend of mine posted something on my Facebook about writing -- it was an excerpt from Amy Poehler's newest work 'Yes Please', and it was dead on. On the subject of writing, she says: 

Everyone lies about writing. They lie about how easy it is or how hard it was. They perpetuate a romantic idea that writing is some beautiful experience that takes place in an architectural room filled with leather novels and chai tea. They talk about their “morning ritual” and how they “Dress for writing” and the cabin in Big Sur where they go to “be alone” — blah blah blah. No one tells the truth about writing a book. Authors pretend their stories were always shiny and perfect and just waiting to be written. The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not. Even I have lied about writing. I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of s***. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver.
- Amy Poehler, Yes Please

I hate the term 'lol', but I literally (and I mean literally in the literal sense, not figuratively as people often do) laughed out loud when I read this. Because she's absolutely right. When I write, it's not lovely. It's not some BBC version of the melancholy artist, shut up in a beautifully sparse attic diligently hand writing great works of literary fiction. 

It's ugly. It's typing out two pages of text, only to delete all but three paragraphs. It's reminding myself over and over again "show, don't tell" or "active voice, active voice, active voice". It's cursing at the monitor or taking a two hour "break" to binge watch cat memes because I have no idea where my story is going next. And when it's done, it's endless hours of edits and revisions. Of changing things that seemed to make sense at three in the morning when you originally wrote it. 

And though I can't imagine doing anything else, it's rarely fun. It's work. It's hard. And it's what we do. So let's go out there and do it. Happy blogging people, but more importantly, keep up the good work and keep writing. 

53 comments:

  1. Thank you for co-hosting the November IWSG! I'm beginning to wonder about being a writer if it is so difficult. I love writing. It's the marketing that has me feeling NICE: neurotic, insecure, challenged, enervated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well you made me "LOL" with your post. It is hard isn't it? That made me feel so much better and strangely enough inspired me. Kudos to you for honesty. I am a writer, but I do wonder if I will ever finish a novel. It aint easy. Short stories are easier, but no walk in the park either. My muses tell me to tell my "editor" the perfectionist to just shut up and write". Everyone told me to build my writer platform as I wrote. I am think maybe I should never have put that pressure on my muse, lol, ah well, we shall persevere.

    Juneta at Writer's Gambit

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for co-hosting for this month!

    I'm with Gail. Writing is where I lose myself. I love it! But marketing is not really my forte.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm with Juneta, and with Gail on marketing. I too, can't imagine not writing, but hate marketing. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't write and I don't want to find out. So I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because you are so right S.L. this isn't the "easy" job most folks think it is... Thanks for co-hosting with me today!

    ReplyDelete
  6. She nailed it. When people find out I write they get this dreamy look and say it must be wonderful. Yeah, about 5% of the time. But it's a job. A job I love, but still a job.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I laughed as well! Boring and like hacking at a freezer with a screwdriver. She nailed it.
    Thanks for co-hosting today!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I feel writing is very hard work, boring, lonely, and time consuming. I write in my robe and slippers. Amy's description is right on! Thanks for hosting this month.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is hard work indeed, but when you find those three paragraphs that work, that fit, that you know will survive to the final edit . . . well, there's a kind of magic there.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice. Actually, when I was a hobby writer, writing was always awesome and fun. It's not until I started working against deadlines and serious publishing with editors who wanted to mold my work that things got a intense. And painful. Still, I like to think of it like running. You push through the wall to get the high. =)

    Unleashing the Dreamworld

    ReplyDelete
  11. That which we create, is beautiful, for it can be no other way. Doesn't mean it's easy, right, or accepted. But it is, and without your words (whether you release them into the world or not) creates the next great moment of you. Thanks for co-hosting this month.

    ReplyDelete
  12. For me, first drafts are hell. Second and third drafts are fun and after that, I'm in love with what I've written, then I hate it, then I love it again, then I'm terrified that nobody's going to like it so I hate it again, and then I push through and edit anyway, through all the love, hate, fear, and doubt, and when I'm done I go, "Well. That wasn't so bad after all..." I think all writers experience those lows and highs.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks you for sharing that. I'm not usually bored writing and I do drink chai sometimes but I'm using the screwdriver on the ice for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  14. So, so true! There are days when writing is easy, where the words just seem to flow, but those days are few and far between. It's more like writing a sentence here and staring at Facebook there.

    Thanks for co-hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  15. If people could only see us as we write, it would be a LOL moment:) True words.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I also gave an out loud chuckle when I read that quote. I can just picture myself holding a screwdriver and hacking away at the frost in the freezer. And, yes, that is a spot on description!!! Plus, you have to make yourself open that darn freezer and stick your hand in the cold. Not fun.
    Thanks for co-hosting IWSG today!
    Play off the Page

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ha. Love it. So true. Thanks very much for sharing the quote and thanks for co-hosting IWSG! Going back to the freezer now....

    ReplyDelete
  18. I wonder where the romantic idea of writing came from. Probably from someone who never wrote at all. I like the freezer comparison, but with a toothpick.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you for co-hosting today!

    Same here. Ain't nothing romantic when I'm writing. I'm not off in some posh cabin while I compose a manuscript. Nope. I'm in my pajamas or sweat pants and wondering why I can't get the right words to fall onto the screen...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Why do we do it?
    I have no idea.
    Great post and so true.
    Keep writing.
    Thanks for co-hosting.
    Heather

    ReplyDelete
  21. I couldn't imagine pretending some of my books were always perfect. Indeed, I'm brutally honest about how some of the ones I wrote when I was a lot younger were/are in dire need of significant rewriting and restructuring.

    ReplyDelete
  22. hehe People try to make it sound so flowery or so action-packed. It's quite basically like my day job: sitting at my computer for hours waiting for something to do. X)

    Thanks for co-hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  23. The other day on FB, I posted something similar about how hard writing can be that I'm often not honest about how I'm doing. But I keep doing it because I do love it, and if you love something, you pursue it.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Loved this post ~ It's so real! Writing is hard work, but something about it keeps us coming back for more punishment. Have a good one, SL!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I lie too. I also use LOL way too much. But life really does cause me to LOL. Most days, anyway. Like after reading your post.

    ReplyDelete
  26. How refreshing to read the quote. Terrific post!

    ReplyDelete
  27. My writing process certainly doesn't look lovely from a distance. It's worse close up. It is fun though, some of the time.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Couldn't agree with you more. My writing process is so ugly I don't let anyone see the words until at least the tenth draft.

    Thanks for co-hosting today's IWSG!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Awesome post. Don't you love Amy Poehler? Writing is hard work. But if you're passionate about it, it's worth it. And it's rewarding. Thanks for this!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Writing is hard and only another writer would understand that. It's a bittersweet process, but it's always worth it in the end.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Very funny! When you listen to the people who "write" their autobiographies or something about cooking (I am thinking actors right now), they make it sound like they are exploring etc.... I think you nailed it more on the head than anyone else with the excerpt. This also tells me how much one has to love writing and have that feeling of accomplishment afterwards...and then a few drinks of wine, beer or martinis or maybe all three:)

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thanks for sharing that Amy Poehler quote! I laughed so hard, and it's definitely spot on!

    ReplyDelete
  33. I love that quote. It's like having kids (or so I'm guessing, I don't have kids). They take a lot out of you, but you can't imagine living without them.

    ReplyDelete
  34. haha! Loved the Amy Poehler quote. I guess all of the bs comes from people wanting to make their mundane lives sound more interesting than they really are. I used to do it when I worked in banking. I'd tell everyone about closing the big deals and cool business lunches, while my everyday was crunching numbers, figuring out how to use impenetrable software, and dealing with endless customer complaints. But no one wants to hear about that! :=)

    I've always like Elizabeth George's quote on writing: "It isn't "fun," like going skiing or having lunch with a friend is fun, but is certainly is satisfying!"

    ReplyDelete
  35. That quote is awesome! And yes, writing is so hard. I make my students read Anne Lamotte's "Shitty first drafts" and am always amused by how astounded they are that "real" writers have a hard time writing too.

    ReplyDelete
  36. This is an awesome (and truthful) post! Oh the quote! Perfect. I feel good deep down reading this...it is hard, isn't it? Thank you for hosting IWSG!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Loved your post! :Yeah, writing is hard work and it's lonely.Unless we're hanging out with the IWSG. Lots of people to bolster us. Thanks for hosting this month.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Yes! The good the bad and the ugly of writing... But we keep going back for more, great post. M xx

    ReplyDelete
  39. This is so true! My first drafts are just hideous. The second drafts aren't much better. Writing is hard work. Thank you for co-hosting and for such a great post.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Personally hacking at a freezer with a screwdriver sounds more fun but ah well :P heres to hacking away!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Is it bad I'm glad it's not only me... but that paragraph is so true and I feel better knowing I'm not alone.

    Thanks for co-hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  42. ...and now I am laughing aloud and visualizing myself, screwdriver in hand, hacking away at paragraphs, once presentable, now seen as frozen gobs to be eradicated or sculpted into something good. "Oh, the story is there, independent of me... I sense it, I touch it, I guide it into birth..." *Cough!* (The foregoing was spoken to a poetry professor by someone who fixed him with an oyster-like eye [rather like The Ancient Mariner] and went on for a while!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Reminds me of Anne Lamott's piece "Shitty First Drafts." I go back and read it when I about to throw myself off a cliff.

    Dig the blog title. I am a sucker for a pun.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Ha, that was great! Some nights I would rather hack away at my freezer with a screwdriver than sit down and write. =)

    ReplyDelete
  45. YES! Writing is boring (and boring to look at) and hard and internal and confusing. It is not fun in the traditional way people think of "fun" things. But we do it anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I agree - particularly this year it has felt like a hard slog, the revision side of it anyway. It's been like pulling teeth ... or watching grass grow ... or any other cliché that fits. :)

    ReplyDelete
  47. There is a "bang head here" target next to my computer screen for when I'm writing.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Brilliant post. I must have lucked out and spoken to a lot of honest writers - knowing that you should expect the first draft to be crap and to just get it written down regardless has helped me enormously and probably saved a lot of time.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Maybe that's why more people don't read my stuff. I haven't been lying to them enough. Maybe writers lie about writing becasue no one wants to hear the truth about writing.
    In any case, as you say, I can't imagine doing anything else. Thanks for the encouragement and I hope I wasn't a downer when I started out. Thanks for co-hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I lol'ed myself on that one. Right on! Where's my screwdriver. I've got some work to do.

    ReplyDelete
  51. With the exception of Barbara Cartland, whose author pic always showed her on a velvet chaise, sipping champagne, and eating bon-bons, I don't know any authors who say it's easy, that they dress to write, or hide away in a cabin. Although Koontz says he never revises, and that seems like it must be a lie... I do think it's getting harder though. So much competition. But more opportunities, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  52. Hehehe. Yeah, writing doesn't seem like a pretty thing. I enjoy it. It's just the revising that drains me. And making things logically work. Sheesh. Details. :) Best of luck with the chipping!

    ReplyDelete
  53. It IS ugly. And difficult. Ha! Feels strangely empowering to admit these things.
    So why do we do it? No idea.

    "a romantic idea that writing is some beautiful experience that takes place in an architectural room filled with leather novels and chai tea."
    Such a beautiful image...I can feel the texture...and smell those leather novels...and the chai tea...
    Ha! IF ONLY...
    Thank you for co-hosting the IWSG this month!

    ReplyDelete