Writing does not always feel like magic. There are days when revisions feel more like climbing a smooth rock wall with no gear. There are other days when my house gets cleaned before I open the doc I’m working on. Days when I’d rather match socks than open my computer. These are not “happy writer” days.
This happens to all of us. It even happens with stories we love. With characters we love.
I know, without a doubt, that there will be a time in every project when I hate it. When I think its crap. When I feel like I’ve wasted my time.
There are a lot of problems with this line of thinking. First off, if I’ve written anything, I’ve moved forward, even if those words don’t make it into the final draft. Second, the project I hate one day, I’ll love on a different day. It’s not always easy to remember that, because logic doesn’t always come into play when we need it to.
But the one thing that carries me through a project when I want to quit is the idea that books are magic. Even mine.
You know how the best stories make you feel as if you’re living inside the pages? Feel like the characters are your friends? That the places they frequent, are places you’ve been? I can’t fathom that the people in my favorite books aren’t real.
Books are magic.
So often we lose the vision of what we started to do in the beginning—tell a great story—and get bogged down in plot points that aren’t working, or the crazy world of publishing.
Focus on the magic.
YOU, as a writer, are bringing worlds to life (even if you write contemporary like me). You are bringing people to life. Your words are going to make people laugh and maybe cry and maybe stop breathing as they turn pages.
Focus on this, because in the end, the worlds we create will touch more lives than just our own. And yes, that feels a lot like magic.
Jolene Perry wears juvenile T-shirts, worn-out chucks, and eats too much chocolate. She lives in the gorgeous state of Alaska where she does as much adventuring as sitting behind her computer. Jolene is the author of the YA titles Out of Play, The Summer I Found You, Stronger Than You Know, and the soon to be released Has to be Love and Love Blind.