Writing is tiring, annoying and frustrating. It does not matter if you are writing an essay for a class or a novel. If you have been writing for a long time, you seem to hold yourself to a higher standard. A sub-par piece of work does not cut it for you. As you read other people’s writing, you are always comparing yourself to their work and then trashing your work out of frustration.

Writing is a challenge. It is a challenge when you are stuck trying to figure out what words to use to best describe the setting of your short story. You do not know what will paint that perfect picture in the reader’s mind when they read it. Will they have this amazing vision like you expected or will they question your capability to describe settings of stores? You are always anxious! Anxious is when you are sitting at your desk with the pen in your hand or staring at your laptop screen, looking at the cursor on your Microsoft Word page. You are deciding how to put your ideas into words that make sense and enjoyable to read. The ideas you have in your head are mumbo jumbo, if someone were looking inside your head but you understand them. You know where and how these ideas were created. Only you can understand that mess in your head, its your mess. The only challenge is to put your ideas into coherent words. That’s the tricky part. Some days, you have it so easy but others, it’s like that SpongeBob Episode, where SpongeBob spends all time writing that paper and only manages to write “The”. It’s those expectations you have set up for yourself that you want to live up to, that are making writing so hard.

While, writing is a challenge in regards to putting in words. The other part is the feelings behind those words. How intimate writing can be. Writing about your personal memories, like the death of a family member can be helpful but the process of writing it out takes a emotional toll on you. Remembering that moment and feeling those feelings again physically and emotionally hurts you. But, at the same time, you can be healing yourself again. All that time you kept those feelings tucked away in a box, you finally unleash them into your writing. You feel most vulnerable when you are awaiting people’s reactions toward your writing and what they will take from it. Also, if your writing is getting work-shopped in front of you and you are looking at everyone’s faces as they either praise or butcher your work.

No one really starts off by hating writing. You are this excited person who has their book and pen ready or Microsoft Word booted up. As a rookie, you dive right into it but as you mature and become more serious about your writing, it starts taking a toll on you. This hobby can become stressful if you make it in to a career, where there are deadlines. The only advise that can be given is to step back and take a break. A break that will help you reflect on what you have written and think more levelly with the ideas you have written or thought out.