My Thoughts and Experiences on the Online Writers’ Struggles
It never fails. I sit down to write. I read the news feeds and find an interesting topic to write about. I fill out an Index card full of information. I come up with a title and start writing. Right on cue, my wife screams my name. A tragedy occurred. The cable froze right in the middle of “Days of Our Lives.” The train carrying the first sentence had derailed. I sit and stare at the screen. Sometimes, the sentence comes back to me, but most of the time it doesn’t.
I have to be proactive and check the mail before I start writing. If I’m lucky. The mail carrier will come before I start writing. If not, “Lawson, can you check the mail?” The mail will not vanish from the locked mailbox. The bills will not be paid until we’re ready to pay them, so why not wait until the next morning to check the box?
It’s only my wife; it’s me. Before I started writing this story, I went outside with my phone and made a short video. I uploaded it to Instagram and TikTok. I checked to make sure it was on TikTok and immediately started scrolling. I caught myself before I wasted too much time.
Steven Pressfield wrote about the resistance writers face in his book ” The War of Art.” Distractions are a formidable weapon against the writer, especially this writer. A lot of it has to do with neurodivergence, but a lot of it has to do with me wanting people to leave me alone.
It gets so bad sometimes that I will have to have words with my wife. It’s not fair to her. She’s Neurodivergent as well. She forgets the rules. There’s no sense in upsetting her. I have to adapt and be patient.
And then there’s the neighbors. Low-Income housing has its charms. It’s fun to listen to the drama outside our door. The walls are thin, so we can hear it from inside their apartments anyway. There hasn’t been a shooting lately; that’s a blessing. There have been times when blood was all over the breezeway outside. Then there was the time a round hit a pipe in our bedroom and flooded the closet.
The point is, writing is the most important thing in a writer’s life, and it’s the hardest thing to do. It seems as if the universe is conspiring to kill the muse before you write the first word. We, as writers, must fight through it.
I wait until the soap has enraptured my wife. I reached this point of the story just as she asked if I was hungry. The soap was over, and she was mentally back in the apartment. I had to get up and find her tablet and cellphone so she could post what she cooked on Facebook. She posts to YouTube as well. I’m hoping YouTube monetizes her account so I can keep some of my money.
Key Takeaways
As writers, we all have to deal with resistance and distractions. The bigger the dreams, the bigger the distractions. You have to fight through it. Don’t let the noise get you down; keep writing.
About Me:
Lawson Wallace is a freelance Premium Ghostwriter who specializes in emails, blog posts, Resumes, and cover letters. He can be contacted at lawsonwallacewrites@outlook.com. I enjoy contributing to community blogs on Digitalmehmet and also write on Medium and Substack too. I am also a YouTuber.
Leave a Reply