Oh, writer who hates writing, I have been where you are. You sit down at your desk. You feel good. You’ve got your drink(s), you’ve got your notes, you have your writing utensils and/or keyboard. You know what you’re going to do that day, the draft you’re going to work on. All of it. You put your hands down, ready to work.

No.

The feeling leaves you the second you have the time, place, and energy to work. Suddenly you don’t have ideas. You’re pretty sure you’ve never read text in a language your entire life.

It’s creative burnout. And it can make you hate writing.

I Don’t Hate Writing, I Just Hate Writing

This type of comment probably looks familiar.

Now, I’m sure that this author does genuinely enjoy her work. This is just a good-natured grouse. “Ugh, I actually have to work on my draft!” This is a pretty common joke to make and I don’t think that the original poster meant it in the way that I’m about to interpret it.

However, it does speak to a larger trend that I see a lot of and it kind of gets to me.

There are a lot of authors that seem to just really hate their work. Not just looking back on a cringey first draft, but actively disliking the process of writing, figuring out their own story and telling it to themselves. They don’t seem to find any joy in the thing that they do, even if it is for money, treating the creative process as if it was any other job with all of its drudgery.

But creativity is so cool! Writing is cool! Story-telling and self-expression, painting a picture in another person’s brain, just using language? So cool!

And a lot of writers seem to be depriving themselves of the experience of how cool it is. By being annoyed with their process (or worse, outsourcing it to an AI and then just editing the result), they’re cutting themselves off of the magic of story-telling.

Researchers found out that reading fiction can create empathy. Meaning that being immersed in a story can alter your brain. If you write well enough, you can influence another person’s mind. And we want to be upset about having that opportunity?

How To Stop Hating It

A while back, I made a post regarding writer’s block and how to get through it. Part of my discovery process was the idea that we need to return to what made us start writing in the first place. If you hate your writing right now, I don’t think you should go back to the draft right now, and I don’t think you should throw it out. I think you should walk away from it for a second and seriously, genuinely ask yourself: “What am I writing this for?”

Not “What need am I serving by writing?” For some people, a single piece can be strictly utilitarian. “I’m writing this because I’m selling it so I can feed myself and my family.” Fine, but there are loads of things that you can do to make money to feed yourself and writing is not an easy buck to make.

Why write?

Why did you start writing in the first place? Were you running from something and found that ruled paper lines were a great place to hide? Did you try it once and decide that the praise you got from other people was enough reason to keep going?

If you want help to figure it out, talk to the people around you. Talk to the people you shared your work with, even if it’s an old teacher you knew when you were a kid. Talk to other writers. Talk to me.

But don’t stop writing. Don’t deprive yourself of the opportunity to alter brain chemistry and provide an escape for others. Keep doing the thing that makes you joyful, even if the joy is hard to find sometimes. You found it when you were younger, and I believe you can find it again.

Writer Who Hates Writing, I believe in you.