Pressures of Writing

Why am I writing about this?  For many reasons.  We put way, way, way too much pressure on ourselves as wannabe authors.  We're already writers, right?  If you've settled down with your computer and written several thousand words for the pure heck of it, you're a writer.  To me, being an author is a completely different thing.  When my friends ask me about my craft, I say I write.  I don't say I'm an author.  I feel that has to be earned.  I have to be published to be an author.  So, I'm not yet an author.

Back to the whole pressure thing though.  We put pressure on ourselves to write something someone else will like.  Important but not why you should write.  You should write because you have a story you have to tell.  You should write because you simply must to be complete.  When Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight, nobody was doing the vampire thing.  Buffy was winding down and vampires were thought to be so over.  She wrote the book because she dreamed it and "for fun."

We pressure ourselves to have a business plan.  This is something that admittedly freaks me out.  I am not a business person.  I am not good at selling anything, especially not my written pride and joy.  I need someone else for that.  Someone objective to help me, leading to my next point.

We pressure ourselves to get an agent, like now.  This is something I think about everyday.  How to get myself an agent.  Write a good book.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Hopefully, I've done that.  Hopefully.

We pressure ourselves to have a Twitter account, or Facebook page, or Tumblr, or website, or a blog.  This kinda goes back to the business plan thing.  I will freely admit, I dreaded this part but I have thoroughly enjoyed this blog.

We put pressure on ourselves to write the perfect manuscript, then the perfect query and perfect synopsis (if that's even possible).  I spend an inordinate amount of time writing query letters.  Writing them, scrapping them and rewriting them again.  They never seem just right.

I could go on but the point is this.  We put all this pressure on ourselves to write when really we should listen to the wise Mrs. Meyer.  We should write for fun.  Writing is the most rewarding (besides having beautiful children and marrying a wonderful man) thing I've ever done.  I need to focus on that and stop letting it put pressure on me.  After all, I do it to escape.  To avoid the stressors of the real world.  Moral:  Chill out, Ms. Author!