Writing Advice Writers Don’t Always Want to Hear
Posted under: Okay, I’ll admit it. When I come home from a hard day or I have to work in the evenings till late in the night, it’s hard to find the motivation to write. Writing is, after all, hard work. You have to have something to write about. Even if you don’t, sometimes getting the creative juices going is like mixing gravel and concrete. It’s tough.
But do you know what’s easy to do? It’s easy to want to be a writer. What’s the difference between wanting to be a writer and wanting to write? Hint: the answer is passive versus active.
Wanting to write is sitting down at your computer or with your notepad, paper and fountain pen. Then you work to get your creativity flowing. Sometimes you’re able to get into the zone, sometimes you’re not. But writing words down on paper anyway, even if it’s crap, is an active state of mind.
Wanting to be a writer is the category that more of us, including myself, fall in, I’ll admit. It’s easier to just have dreams of doing or being. Most successful writers remind non-successful writers that active instead of passive is the only way, that when you reflect on life, you’ll have regrets instead of a book.
This is at the front of my mind because of an article I stumbled on called “So You Want to be a Writer.” The author gives some pretty pointed (caustic, maybe?) remarks about people who write and people who just want to write.
Which category do you fall under?
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