You Can't Rely on Comfort to Write Books
"The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page." -Anne Enright
From one of my early 2025 newsletters.
One of the hardest parts about being a human is that we are wired for familiar, comfortable things. It's just the way we are.
But you cannot expect to write books living in this place.
Writing requires us to actively, intentionally live in a place of discomfort. Often.
I know this is annoying. I know it's hard to keep showing up day after day, working toward our dreams, even when it's highly uncomfortable.
A lot of writers ask me "well if it's this hard shouldn't I stop? Isn't that a sign?"
No.
Most things worth doing in life are hard. Things that bring us true joy, sustainable change, are often uncomfortable.
Working out. Putting away Instagram so we can meditate. Moving to your dream city.
I'm not saying that every writing session will be uncomfortable and hard. You'll have days of pure joy.
You'll also grapple with days when you just don't feel like it, and your amygdala (primal brain) will ask you to just chill out on the couch.
You must be willing to get uncomfortable.
You pay for the hard with your own discomfort to get the results you want.
I finished my zero draft.
December 25th, I got to "The End" of my zero draft.
She's a mess. She's going to need work. But she's mine ❤
This book was hard to write. It had me questioning myself and my sanity many times.
This was the first book I wrote with 3 POVs (points of view) the whole time. I've written other books that have two POVs, but I added the second POV later on in revision.
It was wildly hard to write 3 POVs through the entire thing.
It may have been hard, but I am not letting that hard tell me something about my worth.
Of course it was hard. It was the first time I'd ever done it!
This book was hard, but I'm resilient. This book will take work, but I can do the work.
(And you can do the work your art requires of you, too)
Mindset Shift of the Week
Learn to trust your own creative instincts.
This will take trial and error. And ignoring other people's advice (and taking on other advice).
I had to ignore some of the emails I got when I admitted I was in a creative block. I had some well-meaning people say "create a plan for the end of your book and you'll be able to write it!"
This does not work for me. This is why I zero draft (it's my way of getting a shitty rough draft out more efficiently than writing a whole ass book and then having to remove tons of scenes). Maybe planning my scenes will work in future books. But for this book, it did not work for me.
The people who sent in these emails are lovely people I highly respect.
But I also have to learn to trust my own creative pulls.
This is what I preach to everyone I work with. Your process is unique. Only you will know the way.
The Write Your Own Way Summit Feb 1 - 4
I’m cohosting a FREE summit with my dear friend Lauren McLeod called The Write Your Own Way Summit: Forge Your Unique Magic!
With 40+ talks, this summit is full of immense wisdom.
Write Your Own Way celebrates the diverse, personal, and uniquely creative paths writers take.
It's no secret that I am a highly intuitive writer. I speak quite plainly on my Instagram about how craft-specific advice and "how tos" with rigid formulas kept me stuck for years.
I banged my head against a wall for two years trying to outline the draft I have just finished because so much online advice told me I had to outline to be an efficient writer.
It's not just me.
Many writers feel boxed in by the one-size-fits-all advice that dominates the writing world.
You might have tried following rigid formulas and found that they don’t work for you.
You might have felt like the unseen struggles and mindset roadblocks you face are unique to you and not widely understood.
Perhaps you're an intuitive writer who allows your creativity to guide you, or you're still discovering your own unique process.
Maybe you're a deeply sensitive individual who embraces the magical and seeks to infuse your practice with an extra touch of enchantment.
Write Your Own Way celebrates you—the writer, the creator, the storyteller—and the many unique, imperfect, and magical ways you bring words to life.
Each speaker brings their own perspective, experience, and hard-won wisdom, and by the end of this summit, you’ll see just how many paths exist to creating your best work. Spoiler alert: none of them are “the one right way.”
Here are some examples of what you can expect:
Creating failure resilience with Riley Lindhardt
Being a neurodiverse writer
Using the Tarot to overcome blocks
Using Dictation (writing with your voice)
Managing impostor syndrome
Channeling your creativity through cycle-syncing
Choosing yourself as a writer
Writing with chronic illness
Dealing with feedback and rejection
Going from self doubt to creative freedom
How to get out of burnout & back to writing
Being an intuitive writer
Will I see you there?