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The forgotten joy of the writing process
Apr. 4th, 2025 04:43 pmI’ve been missing the entire point of what made writing so much fun for me. I have been stressing myself out for long trying to write the perfect fic, but the entire point of writing is that I’m supposed to enjoy the process.
I think of it like crocheting. I don’t like everything that I crochet. Some things I do, and I’m proud of the finished product. But I love doing it because it is such a peaceful and mindful thing to do. Sometimes, it’s all about enjoying the process than worrying about the finished result.
That’s how I need to start thinking about writing. I need to accept that I’m not going like the finished result of everything I write, and that’s okay. But the beauty of it is that I can edit everything once I’m finished. But in order to get anything finished, I need to just sit down and enjoy the process just like I do with crochet. Creating things is a beautiful thing, and I need to learn to be content with just creating again.
Obsessing over the finished product before I even get the words onto the page is one of the major reasons as to why I almost never finish my stories.
For the past week or so, I’ve been working tirelessly on a Zeppelin fanfic. I turned off my mental editor and just typed away the fantasy that I had been having. I’m collaborating with a friend of mine, so she’s currently making heavy edits and writing the scenes in a “different color” as she had put it. I’m a little nervous because not only is this my first collaboration, but the person I’m collaborating with is a much better writer than I am.
But that’s not my point. My point is that the fact that I was able to turn off my mental editor was how I managed to write 6,000 words in less than a week. I haven’t proofread it yet; I’m waiting for her to finish making whatever kind of changes/suggestions that she wants. It’s probably shit (my part, not hers. Everything she writes is brilliant.) But the important thing is that I got it done, and I enjoyed the writing process. I would sit down and type away on my computer, finding the same kind of peaceful mindfulness in writing each word as I would crocheting each stitch. And that’s what I have missed about writing. That’s what made me love it as a child, and that joy has been crushed out of me as an adult. It feels freeing to have some of that back.
I think of it like crocheting. I don’t like everything that I crochet. Some things I do, and I’m proud of the finished product. But I love doing it because it is such a peaceful and mindful thing to do. Sometimes, it’s all about enjoying the process than worrying about the finished result.
That’s how I need to start thinking about writing. I need to accept that I’m not going like the finished result of everything I write, and that’s okay. But the beauty of it is that I can edit everything once I’m finished. But in order to get anything finished, I need to just sit down and enjoy the process just like I do with crochet. Creating things is a beautiful thing, and I need to learn to be content with just creating again.
Obsessing over the finished product before I even get the words onto the page is one of the major reasons as to why I almost never finish my stories.
For the past week or so, I’ve been working tirelessly on a Zeppelin fanfic. I turned off my mental editor and just typed away the fantasy that I had been having. I’m collaborating with a friend of mine, so she’s currently making heavy edits and writing the scenes in a “different color” as she had put it. I’m a little nervous because not only is this my first collaboration, but the person I’m collaborating with is a much better writer than I am.
But that’s not my point. My point is that the fact that I was able to turn off my mental editor was how I managed to write 6,000 words in less than a week. I haven’t proofread it yet; I’m waiting for her to finish making whatever kind of changes/suggestions that she wants. It’s probably shit (my part, not hers. Everything she writes is brilliant.) But the important thing is that I got it done, and I enjoyed the writing process. I would sit down and type away on my computer, finding the same kind of peaceful mindfulness in writing each word as I would crocheting each stitch. And that’s what I have missed about writing. That’s what made me love it as a child, and that joy has been crushed out of me as an adult. It feels freeing to have some of that back.