So Why Didn’t You Write That Novel Yet?

Here’s the thing: us writers or those who‘d like to be writers are always and inexplicably writing.

Whether it’s scribbling blurbs on scraps, drafting verbose facebook posts, dreaming up fictional characters, or even when absorbing golden nuggets from revered writers – we are always writing.

But when asked what we’ve produced so far, there is almost always nothing we are proud to show. The unprecedented book, play, or script that we’ve been envisioning since the birth of our creativity is yet to come into creation. The stories swirl in the snowglobe of our minds – stirred by inspiration but settled by inertia.

As we wait for the precise timing to launch into our creative momentum, we miss the blaring truth that – the process doesn’t will itself; only you can will it into creation.

We passively wait for that moment of furious writing to come, in which utter brilliance pours forth like a fountain and propels itself into perpetuity. It has to be that right moment and time – the perfect mood and indisputably perfect idea. We wait and we wait, but that moment never comes. We get caught up in our daily agendas and petty obstacles as the hours grow into days, the days grow into months, and the months stretch into years of latency. Our stories remain suspended in a fetal lair.

The reality is that the perfect moment and perfect story we seek are not our, or anyone’s, reality. As we wait for the precise timing to launch into our creative momentum, we miss the blaring truth that – the process doesn’t will itself; only you can will it into creation.

Many of us have every petty excuse as to why we haven’t created anything yet. Some say it’s the lack of time, others say it’s the creative drainage of 9-5 jobs, and some say it’s the lack of experience holding them back. However, like many other excuses, the lack of experience is a minimal barrier to creating that story. If you want to enrich your story with the in-depth complexities of one who has experienced the gritty corners of the world and you don’t have time to be one, become a voyeur. Observe your surroundings in greater detail, do some people watching and live vicariously through different narrators’ eyes. If it’s creative drainage you’re worried about – you can’t say that you’re 100% drained of all creative capacities all the time: those little moments in transit, that lit bulb in your mind in the afterhours – they’re all nuggets to get the story going.

So the problem is simply – you.

For the most part, anyway.

It’s in you: the creative capacity, the brilliance, the unprecedented story-weaving potential – all in you. But you’re setting obstacles in your path with the can’ts, and the don’ts, and the nevers.

First step, get out of your own way.

Second step, believe in yourself.

Third, write.

Whatever gold, drivel, anything, comes to mind – write.

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