Writing

Monica Heisey -   i have never felt very comfortable with the stance, held by some writers, that writing as an undertaking is both very difficult and emotionally intolerable. While I understand there is plenty about being alone with your thoughts, sharing your ideas in public, and attempting to take something from inside your mind and bring it into the physical realm that is uncomfortable, it is not difficult like digging a ditch. it is not intolerable like having your heart broken, or even like having a sunburn. when people say things like “writing is torture,” i often think, if you really feel this way, why not do something else?

I encountered this line of thinking so frequently in the early days of my career that it occasionally caused me to doubt myself. I loved writing. I couldn’t believe I got to do it for a living, and found it, often, actively fun. Did this mean I was doing it wrong, somehow? Was there a more arduous and therefore more correct method that would lead me to create stronger work? If suffering for one’s art provided no special benefit, why were writers I admired constantly tweeting or appearing on panels to say their working life was hellish and exhausting?