Trouble Starting New Writing Projects?

 

I want to...  I plan to... I am going to...  I will... How many times have you started a sentence like that either mentally or aloud when thinking about future writing projects? 

How many times have you promised yourself to begin writing your family stories? Or that novel that's been circling your brain for years? Or the picture book that you are sure will be a hit? Or putting your poems into book form? Or writing your memoir? Or revising an old novel?

We think about these writing projects for a long time before we ever take that leap and start writing. We can come up with a lot of excuses for not starting, many of them valid but a lot that are nothing more than avoiding the first step. 

If you fit into this category, know that you are far from alone. This situation occurs for many writers. The big question is WHY?

It's going to be a lot of work. It probably will, but isn't achieving something you've thought about for a long time worth pushing yourself and working hard? 

I'm afraid it won't be any good. That's possible, but you'll never know unless you start, keep writing, and finish. Even if your project does not get published, you'll still know that you achieved something you'd been wanting to do. 

I'm not sure I'm a good enough writer. We only become 'good' writers by practicing our art. We cannot be fine writers if all we do is think about what we want to write. We have to write and rewrite over and over to attain the status of a 'good' writer. We also have to continue to learn about writing by reading, talking with other writers, joining writing groups, and being observant.

I have too many other things in my life to find time to write. We all have 'other' things in our lives. I have always found that we can find time for the things we want to do. The ones we prefer to skip are easy to push in the background. The question here is 'how much desire to start a project is there?'

What if my new project is a roaring success? Can I live up to it with a new project? If you don't try, you'll never know. Don't let thoughts like this hold you back.

Don't squelch your dreams. Scoop up some determination and get started. If not now, when?