What are your main challenges with writing or keeping a regular writing schedule?
My personal ones are two monsters that are so sneaky precisely because they contradict each other, rendering me paralysed if I'm not careful.
Resistance
On one hand is the Resistance. You know Resistance, I bet you've met her. Perhaps she even pays you a visit regularly as well.
What does Resistance say?
I can't write THAT. It's bad. It's not worth doing. People will hate it anyway. You can take a break. It's just not good enough. Maybe I just wasn't meant to be a successful writer.
Yep. I bet you could tell me what Resistance whispers in your ears.
But the thing is, I have had a lot of practice dealing with these thoughts. And I'm happy to say I handle them much better nowadays than I used to.
Feeling Behind
The problem comes when the other monster enters my mind. In the title, I call her FOMO because it sounds catchy, but that's not really it. This monster is Fear of Being Too Slow or let's call her Feeling Behind.
Feeling Behind says things like,
Hurry up, time is running out! Are you seriously going to procrastinate AGAIN? You can't afford to rest, you are so behind. Look at this or that person who is your age or younger and has achieved so much more than you! Write, write, write!
I know it sounds like Resistance is the bigger baddie of these two, but let me tell you a secret. Feeling Behind is actually much much worse.
But we'll get into the details of that some other time.
Today, I just wanted to talk about the absolute horror that happens when the two visit at the same time.
Being pulled in both directions.
Paralysis
Feeling strong resistance against writing, wanting to procrastinate and do something else, anything else. And at the same time, feeling like you're already missing out, you shouldn't just not procrastinate, like you should somehow make up for all the times you've procrastinated in the past.
These two join forces and create one supermonster: Paralysis.
So when I have days like that, what do I do?
The only thing I can do: nothing, actually. But that can be harder than it looks.
I have found the best thing in these situations is to
- allow myself to feel all the things I'm feeling and to think all the thoughts that are running through my head;
- observe the feelings and thoughts without acting on them - this is the part that is harder than it looks.
The thing is, if I give in to Resistance, I'll find some mindless task to do. If I give in to Feeling Behind, I force myself to write some crap I will feel bad about and throw away later anyway.
That's why I need to just breathe, journal, or go for a walk to allow myself to observe this entire process.
In short: Finding a way to NOT give in to either of these two monsters.
Finding a way to reconnect with myself to remember I have more options than I often believe.
And sometimes, I open up my Writing Studio dashboard and start writing a post. That's how many of these posts get born 😉
And, my friend, they have helped me a lot throughout the weeks so far.
I hope they resonate at least in some way with you. If they do, I would love to hear about it.
I wish you a great week - and remember, monsters might visit you, but you always have the ability to respond however you want.
Until next time,
Katja
Thank you for being here.
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See you next week!
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