Hello, friends! Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a blog hop created by Alex J. Cavanaugh and co-hosted this month by Ronel, Deniz, Pat Garcia, Olga Godim, and Cathrina Constantine. Are you a writer? Do you feel insecure? Well, then this is the support group for you! Click here to learn more and to see a list of participating blogs.
For most of my life, I’ve been telling people that I love writing. But (confession time) that’s not entirely true. I don’t love writing. Most days, I don’t even like writing. Writing is a tedious, time-consuming process that requires me to think really hard about words when I’d rather be watching Netflix. I mean, have you seen Arcane? That show is so good!!! Wait, no… I need to stay on topic. What was I talking about? Oh yeah: writing sucks. I hate it. So why do I keep doing it?
Whenever I go around claiming (erroneously, as you now know) that I love to write, people will inevitably start suggesting things that I ought to write about. I’ve been told that I ought to write smut, because that’s how you make the easy money (I’ve met writers who write erotica, and I know it’s not such an easy way to make money). I’ve been told I ought to write a book about Abraham Lincoln, because it’s about time the truth came out about Lincoln (the person who suggested this… I do not know what he was talking about, and I don’t want to know). I’ve been told I ought to write about what it was like to live through a global pandemic, because that’s an interesting experience that I’ve had (and other people haven’t, I guess???).
As a writer, it takes a lot to get me to sit down and do my writing. All those suggestions from random people in my life—I’m sure somebody could write a good book about those things, but I cannot muster up enough enthusiasm to write about them myself. I’d much rather curl up in bed and rewatch Three Body Problem on my laptop. That scene in the Panama Canal gives me chills every time. So upsetting. Anyway… sorry, we were talking about writing.
For some strange reason, those same people who keep telling me what I ought to write about also keep telling me what not to write about. They don’t think I should spend so much time writing about space. They say I’ll never get rich, like E.L. James, by writing about space. And maybe that’s true. But here’s the thing: I love space. I hecking LOVE outer space. I mean, outer space is so cool! Unless you wander too close to a star, in which case outer space gets face-meltingly hot. Gravity’s weird up there. There might be aliens. All the planets (besides Earth, of course) are straight-up death traps, but we’re going to try to live on some of them anyway. Remember to bring your own oxygen, and remember to hold on to your oxygen tank like your life depends on it (because it does).
Space is just so exciting to me! It’s exciting enough that I’m willing to spend hours upon hours of my own free time writing about it. That’s time I could’ve spent watching… I don’t know, Stranger Things, or something? Doesn’t matter. The point is I love space so much that I’m willing and eager to write about it, despite the fact that I don’t actually like writing all that much.
So going forward, I may still tell people, from time to time, that I love writing. But between you and me, dear reader, you’ll know what I really mean. You’re in on my secret now. To me, writing is merely a means to an end. It’s a tool I use to express a more important thought. Namely, that I love space.
So friends, what do you love? What do you love so much that you’re willing to write about it?
i-love-space.com 
You love space, so stick with it. If you write about something you don’t enjoy, it will show.
And that was indeed a chilling scene in Three Body Problem.
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It really was. I remember it being unsettling in the book, too, but they did an excellent job bringing it to life on screen.
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I write about life and the lumps it comes with. Some say I do okay with my characters, but really all I’m doing is sharing what I’d do if I didn’t have to pay any consequences. So my characters are on the violent and snide side. They stand up for themselves and others, just because they can.
I could go on, but I’ll spare you the rant. Have a great holiday!
Anna from elements of emaginette
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There’s a bit of wish fulfillment in my writing, too, at least when I’m writing fiction. I wish I had witty comebacks in real life, so I write about people who make witty comebacks. I wish I could blow stuff up sometimes, so I write about characters who blow stuff up sometimes. And obviously, I wish I could go to space, so I write about people who go to space. Nothing wrong with putting some wish fulfillment in your writing!
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I love science and philosophy, and writing, including when or if I get around to writing fiction, will be a means to explore those topics.
I do sometimes wish I loved writing the way Isaac Asimov did. When asked how to be as prolific as he was, he said that you had to love the actual act of writing, the mechanisms themselves, the way he did. For most of his career that meant sitting at a typewriter for hours on end. (He did eventually switch to a word processor when Tandy offered to give him a computer.) Apparently he loved that process. He didn’t want to plot or research, he just wanted to write. All his productivity, hundreds of books, was a mere side effect of that love.
I do love sitting with my laptop the way I am right now and having these conversations. I wonder if there’s any way to convert that into Asimovian type love of writing.
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I’ve always liked and admired Asimov’s mindset. It’s taken me a while to finally admit that I do not have that same mindset. I write because I love the subject matter of my writing, not because I love the act of writing itself.
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Asimov’s obsession with writing ultimately wasn’t healthy. He apparently rarely left his apartment and never exercised. He had health problems later in life from it, which was what led to him contracting AIDS in a hospital transfusion.
So I don’t think we should feel bad for not having it. We each have to follow our own path.
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Agreed. I didn’t know that about Asimov’s health and lifestyle.
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I had a similar experience to yours. My daughter once told me I ought to writer romances because they sell better. Unfortunately, although I love romance as a genre and read romances all the time, I can’t write romance. My imagination just doesn’t go in that direction. A science fiction story, on the other hand – that’s what fires my muse. Spaceships, space stations, aliens – like you, they draw me with their possibilities.
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Same. I also read romance. I read a lot of different things, actually. But if I’m going to put the effort into actually writing something, there needs to be at least one spaceship. Preferably more than one.
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Olga, I can’t write strict romance either. I can do it as a subplot, but not as the major plot.
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LOL. I loved this post, James, and the title especially. Brilliant. Yes, of course. I heard this great psychologist Alain de Botton speak on a podcast the other day. He said, he started writing and thought, ugh, this is really really hard. Then later he said, “Good. It should be hard. If it’s hard you know you’re doing it right.”
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Good quote. I like that perspective.
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I understand how you feel about not liking writing, J S Pailly. To be honest, I often feel this way too. At one time, before I seriously thought about getting published, I wrote indulgently, for me, exactly what I wanted to read, and… yeah… it was very enjoyable, all consuming in fact. I know some people say you should write what floats your boat, but I believe that what I was doing back then would sink at once.
As for all those people who say you must write about this… that… and the other? Yes, they can write about those things. Defo!
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Definitely agree. Especially with the Abraham Lincoln guy. I still don’t know what he was talking about, but he had more than enough passion to write a book about it. Not sure if that book would (or should) be published, but the passion was 100% there.
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This is so relateable, and yes, Arcane is a good show. I love that you love space and hope you never stop writing about it. I suppose I love writing about all the random thoughts I have. I’m much better at communicating through writing than speaking unscripted.
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Oh, me too. I’m rubbish in conversations. Writing is hard, but it’s still easier than talking.
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I love horror and sci fi so much that I’m willing to write both and write about both. And I just love writing period. It’s an art for me, like fine or visual art was for me when I was in high school and couldn’t go without drawing or painting. I love the creation process in both writing and visual art in which I express vision with.
One good way to motivate yourself to write more and perhaps to actually enjoy it is to think of those shows you like watching and say to yourself you can write stories just as good as that.
And don’t listen to what those other people say. I believe in following one’s bliss and writing what I truly like and what I really believe I was meant to wrote. So, in your case, write about space! It’s probably what you were meant to write about.
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Follow your bliss: that’s my thinking as well. And you’re right, those shows I like do get me thinking about what I’d like to do in my own stories. I started watching Ted Lasso recently, and I keep thinking “this is a really good show, but what if these people were astronauts instead of football players?” I might do something with that someday.
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“Writing is a tedious, time-consuming process that requires me to think really hard about words when I’d rather be watching Netflix.”
Amen! I took a three-year break from writing, and now that I’m back at it with a new novel, I whine, “It’s so haaaarrrrd! And slow. Waah!” I think it has taken me a year (on and off) to write 30K words. But like you, I write about my passions of sport and psychology. Maybe there are days you don’t love writing, but you clearly love space!
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30K words in a year sounds like good progress to me. Taking a break now and then can be good, too. Sometimes, when writing gets too hard, I take a day or two off. And then when I come back to writing, whatever seemed so hard to me suddenly seems much easier.
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For someone who doesn’t like writing, you’re pretty darn good at it James 🙂
But I get what you mean, drilling down to understand what exactly you love doing can be an interesting exercise. However you feel about writing, I am delighted you tolerate it as a medium for sharing your love of space with us all.
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Aww, thanks! That’s very kind! I’m starting to feel like I might have overstated my case in this post. I don’t hate writing that much. It’s just that if I’m not writing about space, I don’t see much point to writing at all.
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I thought you expressed it very well. It’s not the writing bit you love – that’s just the medium by which you express your true love which is space.
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Ruthlessly true – belated thanks It’s not writing I love, not at all.
Having written, and at last, something has worked, reads true ? That’s different.
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