Five Reasons You're Not Writing Your Novel

5 Reasons You’re Not Writing Your Novel

This post was written by Jessica Stilling who also writes for pharmacy technician and medical assistant

So you’ve always wanted to be a writer. Maybe you got that fancy MFA, or you sit in your room during all hours of the night typing away, or maybe you fantasize about what it would be like to be a best selling author at your day job. Whatever the case, you know it’s time to write that novel and yet you’re waiting. Why? Here are a few reasons you might be waiting, and a few reasons why putting it off would be the worst mistake of your life.

#1. You don’t have time. Make time. Yes, you have a job, a family, a social life. There are bills to pay and a girlfriend to keep happy. You don’t need to give up your life, or your income, to write, just set aside some time. Wake up an hour earlier and write a few pages every day, set aside a few hours on the weekend when you would otherwise be breezing through an entire season of Dexter. Evaluate how you’re using your time and see where you might find room for writing.

#2. You’re not inspired. This is a problem and no, the solution is not simply get inspired. Though inspiration may seem like a magical force that comes and goes whenever it feels like it, there are ways to jumpstart creative juices. Sit and think for a while, go for a walk, sit on a park bench and listen and watch people. Maybe the inspiration for the heroine for your best seller is standing over by the hot dog vendor.

#3. Your head is not in the right place. Again, this solution is not so simple, you can’t just get your head in the right place to write a novel. Still, there are ways to evaluate where your head is and where it needs to be. Is your boyfriend being a pain, does your best friend need to cry on your shoulder about her latest break up? You don’t need to drop every emotional connection you have, on the contrary, those connections can feed creative juices, but you might want to re-evaluate where you’re spending your emotional energy.

#4. The Market. The market is bad, the market is flooded, the market doesn’t want this. Whatever the reason, the all mighty market seems to take a lot of blame for a lot of unwritten novels. What does the market have to do with your writing? Maybe by the time you finish this project the market will have turned around, maybe you’ll be the lucky one person who hits it big? And if not, so what? You’re writing a novel, not working for the market.

#5. You simply do not believe that you and/or your idea is good enough. Well that’s just silly. You’ve wanted to write since you were how old? You’ve been planning this novel at least in the abstract for how long? Of course you have talent, and of course your idea has merit and even if those publishers and agents tell you otherwise, don’t listen. Your ideas, your talent will grow as you write this novel.

Overall, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your work and the greater literary society to write this novel. So go for it.