The Mentality of A Writer

Writer's block exists, but it doesn’t have to.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

A friend of mine, let’s call him Derek, expressed interested in writing online. He was uncertain of where to start. He wondered how to set up his blog, create workflow, what writing tools to use and how to leverage social media. 

I told him, “start on one platform like Substack and start writing. Don’t worry about your niche or any of that, just start and add things along the way as needed.” 

Skeptically, he replied, “Okay. I’ll do that.” 

Several months later, I have yet to see a post of his. 

When I started writing, I didn’t have a computer. I had the cheapest iPad and a $25 bluetooth keyboard. I downloaded a free app for writing and went for it. 

But then I found myself in a trap. I started reading posts about productivity and people’s writing setup, and thought about what I didn’t have. I thought that I needed to have a computer to become a writer. I thought that I needed to have the right setup and everything would flow from my fingertips like magic. 

I couldn’t have been more wrong. My writing stagnated, I didn’t know what to write anymore. Even though I wish I had figured this out sooner, I’m glad that I figured out what the mentality, you have to have as a writer. 

The Tools Are Not Relevant: All You Need Is Paper And A Writing Utensil

All the great writers before you wrote with whatever tools were available to them at the time. 

Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Ringslong hand, then transcribed it by finger plucking each letter on a typewriter. Writers before that wrote with a quill and papyrus. 

We believe we don’t have the tools when we have A.I., spell check and a knowledge library in our pocket with more information than what was ever existed. 

It’s not the tools that you need. There’s no app or magic software that’ll make you a better writer. Make it a challenge for yourself to work with what you have and avoid jumping to the next shiny object. 

A Writer Challenges Themselves To Make The Best Out Of Their Idea, No Matter How Poor It May Be. 

Some problems many writers have today is that there are too many options. You can write about anything in any niche, at any time. As soon as that topic you want to write about gets a little challenging, you can decide to move on. It’s not like you’re getting graded on it like a school assignment. 

I look at this as similar to working out. If you’re out of shape or know someone who’s out of shape, starting a fitness routine is hard. As soon as there’s a little pain, they want to stop. They’re so used to living a life of comfort, they don’t know what discomfort is. 

Writers can get caught up in the same thing. If there’s a topic they can’t write start to finish without the need to critically think about it, many of them will stop. 

The approach should be to challenge yourself and make the most of the materials that you have. Including your ideas. Some days, you may have some lousy ideas. Challenge yourself to make good lemonade from bad lemons. 

Research Comes Last

“Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work.” - Steven Pressfield, Do The Work!: Overcome Resistance and get out of your way

There will be times when you are writing, and you think to yourself, “I need to know if this fact is true to continue writing. I’m going to look something up for a second.”

Then 20 minutes after you looked that one thing up, you found yourself in a rabbit hole that isn’t even pertaining to the topic you wanted to write about. You go back to sit down and write, and you don’t even know where to pick up again.

There are a few tactics you can use to let go of the need to research. Tim Ferriss uses the “TK” in his writing because when you try to find “TK” on your computer, you can easily look it up to find the line that you were sitting at.

In the writing software I use, I can use “%%” to make a comment in the place where I write. It doesn’t matter what you do, use a method that works for you and one that you’ll stick to.

Research is tempting for the curious types. The curious types are typically the type of people that enjoy writing. We allow our curiosity to guide us into learning a new topic that we enjoy. The one thing about us that makes us good writers can be our can be our biggest achilles heel. Learn to stay away from the pitstop of research. 

Messy Is The Rule, Not The Exception

“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.” - Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

You will rarely get your entire writing process down to the point where you will be able to formulate it. 

While having some framework for writing a story or article is great to have, being rigid to framework can hinder what makes the writing you. 

People ask me if I’m a planner or a pantser (writing from the seat of your pants). The truth is, I’m a blend of it. Some pieces that I write, I need some sort of plan to write them. Usually, it’s pieces on topics that I’m less familiar with. Other pieces, I’ll go for it because I know that planning will cause me to overthink it. The world isn’t necessarily black and white, and you don’t have to choose one camp or another when it comes to your writing style. 

Expect the writing to be messy. Expect it to write something that you will hate as you keep going. Strangely enough, some of the pieces that I finished after hating the process were the pieces I was most proud of. I find the feeling of this similar to running a marathon. Around the halfway point, the thoughts that pop into my head are, “why the hell am I doing this?” 

As I keep persevering and finish, it becomes a proud moment. 

Rejection Is Inevitable- Hit Publish

If you’re writing for a publication and have to send a piece to an editor, it will be inevitable that a piece of yours will be rejected. 

If your piece gets rejected, don’t take it personally. Use the rejection to observe what you could have done better, but also remember this, an editor is a person just like you. They’re not some overlord authority over everything that is writing. The piece you wrote may not be a topic that they’re interested in publishing, and that’s okay. 

The reason rejection is a good thing is that it gives you another perspective on your writing. Even if the editor gives no comments on why it was rejected, you can probably figure it out by looking at other pieces that they’ve accepted and comparing it to what you wrote. 

Rejection is a good reason to give your work another review and see what you can do better. 

A Writer Doesn’t Make Excuses

I’ll conclude with this: A writer does not make excuses for why their work isn’t being read. There are various reasons why your work may not be read, and it’s probably not the algorithm. Shadow banning is only real to people who have a massive audience. If you don’t have a massive audience, it’s doubtful that the algorithm decided to put a bias against you. 

Even if you are on a platform where you don’t seem to be getting the traction you want, maybe it’s not the right platform for you. It’s your responsibility as a writer to figure out where your work can be read. 

The days are gone where there were a few gatekeepers from publishing works. If something's important enough for you to get published, you can find away. There’s no excuse. Get out there and work.

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