Meg Dowell Writes

1. So many people talk about wanting to write that it seems both normal and easy to achieve.

2. Anyone — ANYONE — can publish a book, free of charge, right now.

3. We tell each other stories verbally all the time. Writing them down must be simple, right?

4. They’ve only seen mostly perfect, polished and published stories — never a rough draft.

5. Technically, everyone writes. They don’t think about how many years it takes to learn to write “well.”

6. Measuring writing progress/improvement is extremely difficult and, for many, not at all exciting.

7. They wrote a short story once and it was a breeze.

8. Their cousin’s friend’s sister’s aunt published a book on their first try!

9. Writing success stories always go right from “I’m going to write a book” to “I’m ready to publish a book!”

10. Technically, writing requires very few tools or investments. You basically just need your hands. Easy.

11. Ideas do often pop up out of nowhere, but it often seems like we go off and write an entire novel in a day after that and it’s no big deal.

12. Experienced writers don’t talk enough about “the struggle.”

13. Yet no one seems interested in hearing us talk about how hard it is when we do. Or they don’t listen.

14. It sometimes seems like everyone keeps writing the same three stories over and over. Which is kind of true. Kind of.

15. For some writers, this really does come naturally and maybe it’s not as deep of a struggle. But there’s more to writing than the actual writing … everyone has a roadblock. It’s just not always easily visible to outsiders.

---

Meg is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. She is a staff writer with The Cheat Sheet, a freelance editor and writer, and a 10-time NaNoWriMo winner. Follow Meg on Twitter for tweets about writing, food and nerdy things.

---

Help Novelty Revisions become a more valuable resource for aspiring writers.  Join us on Patreon.