Groups are not for everyone. I understand.
But me thinks, Substack herds us into pens. (Excuse the pun). If we pick from the pile of advice, the pit of despair, and the examples of genius — a congregation of writers can be a positive force.
Writing groups can be wonderful. I’ve other posts on this topic somewhere. But today, I came with one incident in mind.
An emerging despondent writer sat reading her work for a group of trusted fellow writers.
“This is boring. I hate it now,” she said. I’m paraphrasing but it wasn’t boring at all. Anyhoooo to my point…
Writing the same manuscript for hours, days, months, or years can become boring and you can hate your work. Yup. Tis true.
Writers rollercoaster from ‘Oh, this is good,’ to ‘What the fuck?’ to 'I’m never writing again, I’ve forgotten how’, to ‘This is a best-seller.’
Then, there’s the quick sand.
The usual number of words or plot point where you get stuck, and want to press delete (NEVER EVER DELETE large portions of work).
Do you have a quick-sand spot too?
I was glad to alert the despondent writer that her symptoms were normal. And when I learned the same, it was such a relief.
We are not alone. Listening to writers talk about their process can be repetitive and challenging, but it can keep you writing.
Someone asked another question in an author’s forum and I thought Big question. But surely, it’s obvious.
What is the biggest challenge in writing a novel?
When I thought about the question, I found ten answers.
Writing the fecking thing – it’s the adage ‘everyone has a book in them’. We can find stats to prove only a small percentage of these people ever get it written. Few writers get to hold a full published novel. Even fewer write more than a few.
Sitting for hours. Guilt-free, unhindered writing time is hard to come by. Plonking one’s arse on a surface and scribbling or tapping away sounds easy. It isn’t.
Believing in yourself and the story. Self-doubt happens. Constantly.
Editing and redrafting – written manuscripts are only a tenth of the way to completion. There will be many variations, drafts, and rewrites before you have a polished manuscript.
Taking criticism and feedback. I fecking hate it. Loathe it. Giving and taking it. YUCK!
Pressing send. Launching your baby off as an attachment to an email is damn hard.
Getting rejected and keeping going. A plain ‘No’ is difficult to take. Being ignored grates on the soul, getting near the goal, and then being disappointed can shatter dreams.
Getting published – can a manuscript be called a novel if it remains unpublished? We all know the challenges here. If you don’t (and wish to), ask questions in the comments.
Deciding on the best form of publishing for your work.
Finding readers and a market for your novel. This now falls to the writer. A publisher will want you to sell it as much as they do. For introverts, this can be the biggest challenge of all.
Writing the next novel. Go back to point 1 above. You can be crippled with fear for the second novel. (You might say you’d be happy with just one. Maybe. But, your publisher will have other ideas and you may find you’ve caught a writing bug and need to continue.)
Biggest challenge: Losing steam, losing the thread of motivation, scrapping the thing after 30-50 pages - not deleting, but just setting it aside and losing interest (we've talked about this before.) None of it's easy! Without the writing bug, though, I'm not sure anyone would keep going...