Drew Linsalata: Stop Dramatizing the Writing Struggle

On the 49th episode of Write Effing Now, the podcast that helps you Master Writing, Marketing, and Publishing One Byte at a Time, the one and only Drew Linsalata is with us to talk about how much harder we make writing than it has to be. It’s a topic long-overdue: stop romanticizing the writing struggle.

If someone came out and said, “Before you embark on any journey, do your best to make it the hardest it can be,” you’d think they were crazy, right? But this is what people do when they talk about trying to write. They wear the badge of dramatizing their suffering like a badge, as if they’re in wretched agony, that they fight to see any light in the fight of putting that pen to paper or their fingertips on the keyboard.

What does drawing out your difficulties in writing do for you? Not much. Here are three disadvantages to be aware of. Listen up, you know you want more!

“Long-suffering” writers create a sort of club that denotes if you are a person who doesn’t have any of their symbolism, you don’t belong. Lacking an oceanside cottage? You can’t get in. Do you not own an ancient typewriter? Too bad for you! Such nonsense. You don’t have to pander to this kind of rhetoric.
It doesn’t make sense for you. Gather the tools that you will genuinely need to create productively. Clear your schedule. Get your headspace right. Read books that will make generating content easier. Take classes. Work toward a smoother road.
You’re living in the dark ages. Come out into the sunshine, sunshine. Today authors are learning about the tools of digital publishing. They are joining writing groups. They are not waiting for the old masters to give them permission into the traditional and elite clubs–they’re making their own!

Drew tells it like it is! He encourages you to own your successes and, most importantly, keep at it. This is how you will get your book or any other writing project done. There’s no other way but to just do it. And he should know as a three-time bestselling author. His most recent book, Seven Percent Slower, was written in a whirlwind, and it’s been one of his most successfully received. He never would’ve gotten there if he was busy making his life a slow, slogging living hell and berating himself every step of the way to the page.

Got questions, or ready to work on your book? Reach out to your host, Hilary Jastram, for guidance here → GBYPodcast.com.

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we have to say, please share this episode, and leave us a review—especially if it’s a nice one. And if you really liked this episode, subscribe and get updates on upcoming episodes, as well as read all the show notes.

Don’t let intimidation stop you from becoming an author or pouring your heart out.

Storytelling is life.

That’s it for this chapter until next week. In the meantime, write on!

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This post was previously published on J.Hil Creative.

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