I have always written stories, I think. Thankfully, most are lost to dead hard drives and shredded paper.
"We all need to start somewhere, right?" I cry, seeking reassurance from the night.
I digress, everyone should write if they want to, just don't expect to be any good. Like any form of craft or skill, it takes years to get anywhere with it. Are there outliers? Sure. There is always someone better than you, who will do it quicker and with more finesse.
In an era of instant gratification, we (and I don't mean just aspiring/professional writers etc.) all need to cool our jets. Some writers can spin-up a piece as quick as a finger snap, blistering their fingers on heavily worn keyboards. I've written fully fleshed 28 page comic scripts in less than a day and smashed a thousand words in a small thirty minute afternoon session. Each time, I get flights of fancy that this is the piece that will be done soon, lest my attention span deserts me and the piece of work I'm trying to bring to life.
What I'm trying to get across is that writing is hard. It is a lengthy process and that's okay. The overwhelming majority of writers still have day jobs (I'm counting all skill levels - if you've published any work through yourself/blog/publisher then you are a writer), so that takes a minimum of 8 hours of your day. Top that off with family life and admin (gym and hobbies, too - I'll talk about this in another blog post), you're lucky to get 30 minutes of writing an evening. That's if you can get past the dreaded social media doom scroll.
It's okay, it takes time. You'll suck, we all do/did at one point, but that's the point of life.
Unit next time,
Hwyl fawr/goodbye,
-C
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