Pay Attention to Me - What Writers Want

Writing isn't as easy as it seems. The perfect word doesn't just flow seamlessly out your fingers and onto the paper or keyboard. At least not 100% of the time. We struggle. It takes longer than we thought to finish a project. We get stuck. We spend dozens, even hundreds of hours on research, and we haven't written a word. We feel frustrated.

And all around us, it seems as if everyone else is writing much more easily than we. So-and-so publishes two books a year. She gets her weekly ezine out - on time and every week. He writes his column each day, without fail.

So when we do actually sit down to write, it's a big deal.

When I first designed my Just Write Virtual workshop, the idea was that we'd check in, go off and write, check in again at the top of the hour, go off and write, check in at the top of the hour, and so on - for four hours.

When I imagined it, I figured the check-ins would be pretty quick: "Here's what I did during the last segment, and here's what I am going to do in the next." Done and off to the next person.

But the participants wanted more than that.

Yes, we shared what we had written and what we planned on writing. But we also wanted to share our experience. Here we were with other writers, which doesn't happen very often (depending upon how we've structured our writing lives). And we were all in the same boat - trying to write. We wanted to share our pitfalls, challenges, issues, and breakthroughs. We wanted to talk about writing it badly, following our energy, the inner critic, the writing process....

We wanted witnesses to the action of our words, beyond just the eventual reading of the words in their final form. We wanted acknowledgment of our attempt in getting those words down.

Witness, support, acknowledgment were key to our success. It made the writing easier. The energy flowed better. We were motivated. We wanted to write more.

It also helped that we had accountability. Not only did I want to share my process with the other writers, but I knew I had better write something. Otherwise, I might look like a dunce going back to the check-ins and not having written anything.

What can you as a writer do to get that witnessing? A writing workshop, a writing group that meets regularly, a buddy to hold you accountable and hear about what you've accomplished. Or at least some way to document your own process and what you've been experiencing - in essence, being your own witness.

So it's not just our words that we want people to pay attention to; it's that we also want/need some validation of the process we have to go through as writers. Because writing isn't as simple as words tumbling out of the pen or keyboard. It's deeper, more complicated, and we get in our own way.

Pay attention to you and your writing process, and see the difference in what you create.