I’ve always had a passion for writing, whether it be short-stories or songs. If you’re stumbling upon this blog-entry, chances are you might be in the same boat, or maybe you’re trying to discourage someone from chasing this as a career.
People with a creative mindset and the determination to pursue careers where they are able to use it are the most stubborn human beings on the entire planet.
For instance….
I uprooted my entire life and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2017 because I wanted to become a better musician and songwriter. I’ve sat up all night long staring at a blank screen trying to type…SOMETHING. I’ve basically busted my ass trying to do something that I’ve made no money doing. It absolutely sucks sometimes, but I continue to do it anyways.
For me personally, these are the 5 worst parts about being a writer:
[1] Staying Motivated
The thing that I love doing so much, actually physically hurts me sometimes so at those times it can feel a lot like masochism. Think about it…
You are trying to imagine things that don’t even exist.
You are attempting to create the perfect words to capture how you feel about a person, place, or idea.
You are trying to find a word that rhymes, but still fits within the story.
You are placing your brain into overdrive, to accomplish a one of these tasks. The brain also happens to be the laziest organ in the human body.
So while your initial intentions start like this:
Your brain would rather do this:
So then you end up procrastinating, and not writing even though you actually truly enjoy writing. You have to fight your brain!
The way I combat the brain fatigue is by setting a word goal each day. Set a goal that is reasonable for you and your laziest organ, and you’ll watch the pages begin to fill up.
[2] Crippling Self-Doubt
Anyone with a creative mindset has usually accepted that in order to do what they love for a living, they will have to either get extremely lucky or accept being fairly broke most of the time.
This makes people constantly dloubt whether or not its worth pursuing their dreams at all. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve sat and thought, “Is music even worth it?”.
Or, the ever recurring:
We keep trying though.
For most creative minds, its never been about the money rather than having an outlet to express ourselves and share with those who find it interesting, even if its just a few people.
[3] Everything Else is Dreadfully Boring
When you spend a great deal of your time creating new things inside of your own head, everything else can be a bit drab. You’d rather be writing but in reality you have to do boring things like work to keep food on the table. Food is important.
[4] No one takes you seriously… not even you…
You put your blood sweat and tears into your writing for it to be consistently overlooked. Consistently your ideas are rejected and discarded.
Your friends and family likely see this passion as a hobby that you spend way too much time pursuing.
Sometimes you are your own worst critic too. You’ve probably large chunks of work and discarding them because you ended up hating them. You then ask yourself, “Why haven’t I quit yet?”
[5] You’re broke
I’ve had the bug for music and creative writing since I was a kid now and I’m now 29. It’s hard not to imagine an alternate universe where I gave up on these pursuits early and devoted more focus to other pursuits.
There’s a chance I’d own a yacht or something.
Who knows?
I think about that possibility all the time, but I also know that I’d be considerably less happy in that alternate universe. A life without creativity would not be worth pursuing.
Consider this quote by Socrates.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
To live under the rules, and norms set forth to you by society without any consideration to what you want out of life, would not be worth living.
