Writing Struggles

Wednesday, January 11, 2017 | Davilyn at Wednesday, January 11, 2017 |

I love writing things.  I really do.  The biggest struggle I face, is whether or not to promote what I write.  Honestly, I think to myself all the time, "who really wants to read this?"  So I write it, I push publish, and I am happy with what I have written, but I never post it to Google, or Pinterest, or Facebook, or the many other possibilities out there.  Okay, sometimes I do, but not very often.  I just struggle with it!  Why?

Is it because I am afraid someone is actually going to comment on what I have to say?  Not really, because I don't mind comments, and if they are negative I can always just delete them right?  If they are positive, well that's great too.  I just hate to put myself out there.  And that is something I need to get past.  I need to be able to promote my writing, my feelings, and my opinions. 

I like the stories I write, and in my head they are pretty good, but are they good to anyone else who reads them?  I have one novel mostly complete, and I have given it to several people to read through and give me some advice on a few things, and not one of them has done it, and that was several months ago.  So what does that mean?  They don't like it, they forgot about it?  What?  And really, why do I care?  I should press forward and keep going right? 

It is tough the struggles a writer goes through.  I don't care if it is blogging, short stories, novels, or what have you, I think the worst critic of our work is ourselves!  Why do we do that? 

The Write Life - talks about this very struggle, and some marketing strategies we can use to promote ourselves.  Check out the article.  It's a great one.  But here is the short summary.

1. Create some realistic self promotion goals
2. Keep what's working and drop what's not
3. Don't reinvent the wheel
4. Use available tools to your advantage
5. Shift your focus


Sure there are time struggles.  When do we find the time to write?  Then there are the blank stare struggles.  We all stare at the screen sometimes.  Mine are the promoting struggles, because I judge myself to harshly and don't want someone to criticize what I do. 

Yep, I have work to do.  I have struggles I need to get over.  And someday I will be able to share my work without the worry of judgement.  There are competition struggles, and feeling like I am not good enough struggles.  For now, I will keep blogging, keep writing my novels, keep writing my workbooks and reference books, and I will share a bit here and there, with the hopes that at some point, maybe something I do will take off. 

So even though I have struggles, the reality is, I do it because I love to do it. 

Come what may, I will keep doing it, because I love it!