5 Ways to Fight The Guilts

I was in a story lining meeting recently and a colleague referred to needing to deal with “writer guilt” – and I knew exactly what he meant.

At least I thought I did…

For me “writer guilt” is the discomfort of knowing that I haven’t been spending enough time writing because I’ve been doing other stuff. And by stuff, I mean unimportant, phaffing around stuff. The nonsense things, I’ve been wasting my time on.

But writer guilt because you’re not writing is just one of many flavours of writer guilt our scribe family suffer from – there’s also:

Guilt for writing when you are wasting time and should be doing something more “productive.”
Guilt because you haven’t made any (or enough) money yet.
Guilt because you haven’t challenged yourself creatively and got a bit lazy.
Guilt because you didn’t give it your all.

And I’m sure there are many other variations – please feel free to add your own.

Most of us accept that guilt is a normal response to mistakes or bad behaviour but I’m not sure how banging out 2000 words of a short story qualifies as either.

So whaddya say we cut ourselves some slack?

First up – recognise that you’re suffering from writer’s guilt and realise that dealing with those gut-churning feelings will probably serve your writing goals and writing journey.

Secondly – dig in. Work out where this guilt is coming from by asking yourself this simple question – why am I really feeling guilty about (insert the thing you’re guilty about.)

The answer may surprise you. It may be because deep down you only value paid work. It might be that you know you’re playing it safe and are capable of more. It could be due to negative attitudes inherited from your family or friends. It doesn’t really matter what the source is - what matters is that you see it clearly and work out how to let that writer guilt go.

Here are 5 simple actions to help you do just that…

Ask Yourself This Question
If you stopped writing and spent the time doing other things – would you be happier? Would you be happier 10 years from now?
Write a List.
Write down all the reasons writing is good for you and a positive activity in your life. Getting plenty of sleep and vegetables in your diet is also good for you but I’m guessing you don’t feel guilty about doing either.
Think About How Other People “Waste Their Time”
Good grief! Some people burn hours a day falling down rabbit holes on the web or scrolling through Instagram. Others do the same gossiping with co-workers or gaming. Incredibly unproductive but who cares? If that’s their thing, that’s their thing. Your thing is writing and it looks pretty damn productive by comparison, don’t you think?
Cogitate on This…
Modern culture tends to be obsessive about money and tends to value whatever makes a buck. Not everything of value has a dollar sign attached to it.
Embrace Your Choices
Pursuing your writing dream is your choice – don’t apologise for it – embrace it. Write a list or free-write a page about the positive writing gives you. Evaluate what you might need to improve your journey (or enjoy it more) then recommit to it.

Make this week a good one, Peeps.

Kathryn Burnett

Author: The Productive Writer Guidebook

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