April is the cruelest month . . . both this year and last year I seem to be at a significant loss of words to actually say. Nevertheless, I manage. I read a quote from Miss Jane Austen herself on Instagram–not like she herself posted it, but, @storytellermindset did, and yeah, I’m on Insta at long last @cat_rohsner–but anyways, it said, “I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I relate. In fact, that is probably the most encouraging writing advice I have heard from another writer (despite the time difference) in a while. It is an encouragement and a relief to know that writing really really is not about how excited you are about the story every moment before you jump into it; the fun rather increases as you keep going.<\/p>\n

Brandon Sanderson talked about this mindset in his creative writing class, recorded and free on YouTube which I mentioned last week. He said something to the effect of, it doesn’t matter how he’s feeling that day, it’s his job, and going to work doesn’t depend on your feelings. You sit down and write, and what you write may be terrible that day, but then you just go over it another day and make it better.<\/p>\n

Writing novels is not my full-time job, so it was hard to think that is what my mindset should be. But if Jane Austen had the same attitude, more or less, I see that when someone has to write a story, it’s not always meant to be fun. It’s also downright perseverance doing something you love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April is the cruelest month . . . both this year and last year I seem to be at a significant loss of words to actually say. Nevertheless, I manage. I read a quote from Miss Jane Austen herself on Instagram–not like she herself posted it, but, @storytellermindset did, and yeah, I’m on Insta at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[96,130,142,149,213],"class_list":["post-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing","tag-fantasy","tag-inspiration","tag-motivation","tag-novel-writing","tag-writing","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\n