When Did Writing Get So Hard?

Wait, what? Make writing easy? Writing’s hard. That lady in the Grammarly ad said so.

C’mon, people. When did writing get so hard? You’ve been writing since kindergarten. Did you walk into your fifth grade English class and tell your teacher, “Sorry, I don’t have my term paper. I had writer’s block.”

Actually, if I had thought of it, I would have tried it, but I had to stick with the tried and true, “My dog ate it.”

But I digress.

When did writing get hard?

It got hard when we had to do it. It got hard when there was something at risk; when we had something to lose if we didn’t write. Then, like Richard Adams’ rabbits, we went tharn. We froze up.

When I was in high school, I wrote a lot just for fun. I used to produce these newsletters I called Logistics Reports, which were full of nonsense. Everybody loved them. Everybody except my English teacher. She read one and dubbed it rubbish.

My first rejection.

I also liked to write book reports for English class. For books I hadn’t read. For books that didn’t even exist. I invented the title, author, story, and then wrote a report on it.

I usually got an A.

But make me write an essay on an actual book? Ask me to compose a term paper on the major export of Ecuador? (bananas, by the way). That’s when I would freeze up. That’s when writing got hard.

When I had to do it, or else.

Fast forward forty years. I start writing again. Mostly memoirs and fiction. I had fun and wrote a lot. Then, one day, I stepped over to the dark side.

I decided to make money writing.

And that’s when it got hard again. What? You need 150 words on bumper pool tables? You want five unique articles a week about HVAC systems?

That’s when it got hard. When I tried to make money doing it. No work means no money.

But I slogged through that for ten years. And did fairly well at it. I sold most of my work, although my 2009 epic, “Will You Be Affected by the Switch from Analog to Digital TV“ is still available if you’re interested.

But it was hard, and I rarely had any fun.

So, how do we make it easy again?

I’m glad you asked.

Get Creative Again

Writing stopped being fun and easy when I stopped having fun with it. A few months ago, I discovered Vocal, signed up for an account, and became a writer there. I discovered a platform where I could write about anything I wanted to in any way I wanted to write.

There are other outlets where you can do the same. Besides Vocal, I occasionally write on Quora. Or just go to Facebook or Reddit and crank something out. Get creative. Have fun.

But keep a notebook handy. I find that when I take my brain out of gear and start writing for fun, the ideas flow. I’ve written down three since I started writing this piece.

So, just stop working so hard at it and get creative again.

Go for a walk

I’ve read this piece of advice many times, but I didn’t really get it until I was in the shower one day. (Trust me, I’ll tie this back together in a minute)

You know how all those brilliant ideas seem to come to you when you are in the shower? And you’ve forgotten about them by the time you dry off? Maybe I should invent a waterproof notepad that sticks to a shower wall.

But again, I try to keep a notepad handy. I dash out of the shower, dripping across the tile, and scribble something illegible (and wet) on a notepad. I wish there was a way to get these great ideas while not getting wet at the same time.

There is.

What I finally realized was that it wasn’t the shower or the water that was creating the ideas. It was that I disengaged my brain. Whatever I was working on or had to get done that day, went away for a few minutes. My brain was out of gear and just coasting along. So how do I get that same effect?

Take a walk

It needs to be a fairly lengthy walk; at least twenty minutes. Okay, I know for a marathon runner a twenty-minute walk isn’t long, but to a couch potato, it’s a marathon.

The point is, it needs to be long enough to reach that same mindless state you get in the shower. When you first start walking, the day is still churning around in your brain. You’re still having an argument with your boss or figuring out how to get out of that meeting tomorrow.

But after a while, all that drifts away and your mind wanders. And that’s when you get creative. That’s when the ideas will pop in. But now you’re dry (unless it’s raining). And now you have a notepad. (You brought the notepad, didn’t you?) Time to capture those grand ideas. And while you’re at it, this would be a perfect time to…

Use the voice app on your phone

I’m not talking about just the voice recorder, although that’s better than nothing. I am talking about the voice to text functionality. If you bring up your favorite note-taking app and look at the on-screen keyboard, somewhere will be a microphone icon. Tap that and the app will transpose your voice into text.

It won’t be perfect; think about the auto-correct function, but it will be very good. And that way, you don’t have to retype everything or remember what the idea you jotted down was about. Alpaca farming? What was I thinking? You write the whole first draft just walking around. Don’t worry; everyone walks around talking to themselves these days. If people pay any attention to you at all, they’ll think you’re on the phone.

And nobody gets talker’s block.

Just Write

I know you’ve heard this one a lot, but have you tried it? Just sit down and start writing. Anything. Total stream of consciousness. Write about the cereal box in front of you. Describe the color of the paint on your walls. I can guarantee you, once you start writing, you’ll be writing.

And then that idea will come. When a High-Fiber Cereal is Not a Good Idea. How to Paint a Whole House in Fifteen Minutes. (Feel free to steal one of these if the mood strikes).

TL;DR If you want writing to be easy again, stop making it so hard. Quit worrying about the finish line and just get to the start.

Have fun with your writing and the rest will come.

Easy.