When Writing Feels Hard, Keep Writing

by Erin Ensinger

As a seven-year-old, I donned a pair of lens-less sunglasses rummaged from a box of cast-off clothing. Those glasses worked like a magic charm. I put pen to wide-ruled notebook paper and the words of my first mystery thriller gushed forth. After all, John Boy Walton never sat down to journal without his trusty glasses. Every writer possesses some special secret that makes it magically just happen, right?

Visions of Anne of Green Gables scribbling madly away by moonlight guided my view of writing inspiration for years. Writing stories and poetry seemed as natural as skipping rope in my childhood years. But as I grew older, the wells of inspiration dried up in the face of practicalities and peer pressure. Learning to drive a car and do laundry took precedence. I feared my teenage friends would find my story-writing habit peculiar.

One day my uncle, a poet himself, asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated from college.

“I want to be a writer,” I replied without hesitating.

“What are you writing now?” he asked.

Gulp. “Nothing,” I admitted to myself. When the words stopped flowing, I stopped writing.

Looking back several decades later, I can honestly see some good in those “dry” years when my pen stayed quiet. Writers need time to experience many different people and aspects of life before they can offer perspective to readers. I believe the Lord used my years as a social worker, teacher, and mother to mature me before allowing me to write.

And yet, and yet…the yearning to write never died. Finally I decided I didn’t want to go through life wanting to write but never writing. Finally I took practical steps toward my goal.  

My decision to find a way to write meant accepting a lower income. It meant taking absolutely any writing opportunities that came my way, whether paid or unpaid, lowly or glamorous. It meant late nights as a small town newspaper reporter trying to get the paper out after covering yet another raucous town meeting. It meant making time to write amidst the demands of motherhood. It meant accepting editing suggestions I didn’t like.

Above all, it meant deciding to write for the Kingdom rather than fame. And with that decision I realized writing means service, not self-glorification. I finally gave up my childhood notions that writing should be easy and fun. Some days, every now and then, writing feels gloriously easy, freeing, fun. But most days it feels like hard work.

You have to make time to sit down and do it. You have to commit to writing when you don’t feel like it or can’t find time for it. You have to keep writing with no guarantee of being published. You have to write because God created you to write.   

I find great encouragement in the honest words of writing teacher William Zinsser, who in On Writing Well tells of a blunt talk he gave to starry-eyed writing students:

I said that writing wasn’t easy and wasn’t fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed…I then said that rewriting is the essence of writing. I pointed out that professional writers rewrite their sentences over and over and then rewrite what they have rewritten…I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself.

There now, isn’t that uplifting? Doesn’t that make you want to grab a pen and stare down a blank page? Okay, okay, I know it doesn’t immediately sound encouraging. But just think: if seasoned, published writers find writing difficult, face days when each sentence seems a grueling ordeal, and find themselves revising every blessed word, then why should we despair under similar circumstances?

Writing difficulties don’t mean you should look for a new hobby. Writing difficulties simply mean writing is difficult. And so, aspiring writer, I encourage you to take an honest look inside. Do you truly want to be a writer? How will you begin to move yourself from dreaming about writing to disciplining yourself to write?

What resources can you access to spur you on your way? Who can you turn to for editing advice to sharpen your skills? Where can you look for writing opportunities? When in your day can you devote a specific time to writing?

Make a plan and take a step today.