Another month down!
So far, my mood has been pretty positive about this whole Year of Writing project. I was afraid with my busy schedule, it’d be tough to getting writing in every day. But that only held true for a couple days. Most times, I was eager to write and rearrange things so my writing became a priority, instead of an afterthought.
One amazing thing I’ve noticed from this project is my writer’s guilt has all but vanished. If you’re a writer, I’m sure you know of this guilt I speak of. But in case you’re unfamiliar, here’s my loosey-goosey definition.
You feel guilty when you write because you should be enjoying time with friends and/or family, should be doing chores, or exercising, or taking your dog for a walk, or cooking, or tackling the list of 20 things on your last week’s to-do list.
Whenever you’re not writing, you feel guilty about not writing. Even if you’re on a beach vacation sipping a pina colada and enjoying the sunset with your significant other. You should have brought a notebook! Even if you’re doing another activity you love, you feel guilty. Even if you’re driving and couldn’t possible write, guilt guilt guilt.
In other words, writer’s guilt is constant. You feel guilty when you write for ignoring everything else in your life. And when you do other life stuff, you feel guilty for not writing.
It’s a terrible, endless cycle and one that used to plague me. BAD.
Before this Year of Writing project, my Sundays used to be my catch up on writing day. I’d procrastinate and put off writing all throughout the week. Or wouldn’t meet any of my arbitrary writing goals. So I’d promise myself that on Sunday, I would write all day and catch up and everything would be juuussst fine.
As you can imagine, that never happened!
I’d spend hours writing and hardly get anything done, either from being too distracted or too anxious from putting so much pressure on myself. And although I’m all for a lazy Sunday, I usually have a lot going on on those days. Brunches, RPG (all pre-Covid, obviously), football, a long walk (I legit used to feel guilty for walking an extra 20 min), etc. So what ended up happening was I’d get a little writing done, then go do my other things and feel SUPER GUILTY the whole while for not writing.
All this guilt bled into the start of my work week. So come Monday morning, I’d be frustrated with myself for not having had a productive writing weekend.
This was my typical routine for years. Seriously. I know I should have recognized the sucky-ness of this sooner and done something to change it, but writer’s guilt is something so prevalent among writers that I honestly didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
Cut to today and being two months into my Year of Writing project. No more writer’s guilt.
It’s a freakin’ miracle!
Because I make writing a priority and a necessary part of my life every day, I no longer feel the need to write all the words in one day. There’s no more pressure to be a writing machine on Sunday. No more guilt for doing all the other things I enjoy in life.
In the evenings, I can relax with my partner and watch a movie and not feel bad about it! Because I know that I already got my writing in. I did the thing my soul needs to survive and that puts me in a super good mood.
I love to write. I want to be a writer. Now, my daily routine is aligned with those facts.
If you love writing, it should make you happy. Not make you feel guilty all the time. I’m not sure if writing every day is the solution for you, but I encourage you to figure out what works best for your writing and lifestyle.
*Waves magic wand* Writer’s guilt, be gone!
Now for some monthly stats:
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