Tuesday 17 July 2018

Do You Want to Write or Do You Force Yourself?

The other day I was listening to a podcast interview with a really famous - and wealthy - copywriter.

He was talking about his work and how much he writes every day and how successful he is, when the interviewer asked him, "So are you eager to sit down and write every day?"

"No," he said.

"So how often DON'T you feel like writing?"

"Every day."

The interviewer gasped. "You never feel like writing?"

"No. Never. But once I sit down and read just one sentence, I'm back in the zone and can work for hours. But at first I have to force myself to sit and write because it's always the last thing I want to do."

(Naturally, I'm paraphrasing here because I don't remember the exact words, but that was the general gist of the conversation.)

My flabber was absolutely ghasted at this revelation.

Even though I've read Stephen Pressfield's book, The War of Art, several times (which is all about fighting the Resistance to writing every day) I still always feel like I'm the only one this happens to.

In my over-romantic imagination, other writers wake up smiling, stretch happily then get out of bed, while little bluebirds land on their windowsill and sing sweetly while they slip on beautiful clothes and glide dreamily into their study where they sit and effortlessly work on another best seller.

I know, how could I even think that?

But like the copywriter, I don't always feel like writing, but once I start it's easy to have a total mind-shift and keep going.

Applying plenty of butt-time to chair every day is the only way to conquer writing Resistance.

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Grammarly. The free writing app
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/grammarly.html


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