Writing frustration

Writing might be my passion, but it can also be frustrating. I felt broken and discouraged from writing. I had lost four of my stories that I worked hard on, fully finished and edited. They were ready to be published and sadly I could not find a backup copy. My upload to cloud failed and the backup disk it was on could not be read. I am the type of person who can sit down and write for hours if I’m not interrupted which isn’t easy. When you have a job, schooling, children, animals as you can see the list could be endless for what could cause interruptions.

I stopped writing for quite a while. When I thought about writing again, I bought a new cheap computer for writing only. For some reason at the beginning, it was not letting me safe anything, so after writing 9k words in a story I had lost, it was gone again. I did take that as a sign to quit, but I love writing so much. Even if no one else likes my writing or I find one person who enjoys my writing, I'll feel accomplished. My passion no matter how much I try to discourage it, won't let me stop. I daydream stories and situations. There are characters I want to know more about and to follow them around. I want to stalk my characters.

I have a few of my books published, sadly I need to rewrite a few that were lost. Thankfully, this time the family secrets series is intact however I lost several of my singles. I could continue to be depressed over this, but I choose to see a positive side of it. This gives me a chance to make changes and write from another direction. I’ve restarted the story Innocent several times and I’ve found each time I have rewritten it; I enjoy it more. It isn’t always easy to sit down and type away, sometimes sitting down with the intent of writing clears my mind easier than meditation. It’s one of the reasons I will think about my characters while making coffee or tea. I’ll walk around the house. Once I went up and down our stairs thirty times, nothing more then that and thought, wow, my character Rose would be concerned while her brother Lucian would be laughing at me right now. Anything to get yourself into that frame of mind. Sometimes sitting down isn’t for everyone. There is voice to text that have improved over the years and many write while driving, jogging, playing at the school yard with their kids or pacing around the house. Find what works for you.

There will never be a time where your passion for something cannot irritate the hell out of you. Its okay to be frustrated and even a little angry over what seems to be your driving force.

If you find yourself having self-doubt about your writing, remember the main thing. Writing should be enjoyed, love what you write and if you don’t, start over. Even if its not a good story, did you have fun writing it? Did you enjoy your story? Think about what you might do differently with it. Tweak the characters, change setting, add more detail or possibly less detail. Write down a character’s name and everything you can think about that character, positive and negative, what you like and hate about them. Sometimes this can help you develop your story better when you find out how your character will adapt to the situation they are thrown into.

Right now, I have instrumental music playing, it instantly helps kick my mind into the right frame of mind for writing. Everyone is different. The main point. Don’t give up. If you don’t write your story, then how am I or others ever going to read it? Don’t let it rot away alone in your brain.