Hello and welcome back to Indie Author Weekly! This is the podcast for indie authors, aspiring authors, and curious bookworms who want the inside scoop, tips and motivation, and the behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books. I’m your host, Sagan Morrow (or @Saganlives on Twitter & Instagram), and I’m a productivity strategist and an author of polyamorous romcoms.
Now, are you struggling with writing your book? Well, that’s exactly what we’re discussing on today’s episode of Indie Author Weekly!
By the way, you can now get all Indie Author Weekly podcast episodes—plus updates on my writing projects—delivered directly to your inbox each week at SaganMorrow.com/behindthescenes… link is in the show notes.
Now let’s get into this episode of the Indie Author Weekly podcast. Today, I want to share about the guilt associated with being a writer.
Because I have felt a ton of guilt lately with writing my book. The writing struggle is REAL, y’all!
A while back, I was telling you about how I had taken a hiatus from writing books so that I could build up a strong financial foundation for my business… and I told you about how that strategy didn’t quite work out as planned. You can learn all about that in Episode 121 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast.
In the past few weeks, my spouse Mr Science got a new job with BC Wildfire Services, so we have moved from our temporary tiny little lake town in inland BC, to Kamloops! I am recording this from a motel, where we are living until we get a new condo. Yes, I’m basically living Schitt’s Creek right now. It is an experience!
This new phase of our life is really exciting, and I am SO happy about this adventure. It feels fantastic to move to a new city.
Now, at this point in the summer, I wanted to be spending the vast majority of my time working on my current work-in-progress, Small Town Stilettos: a modern marriage of convenience, which will be my 8th romantic comedy novel. You can learn more about that when you visit SaganMorrow.com/books (link is in the show notes).
But here’s the thing: I find that every day when I say to myself, “Okay Sagan, today you’re going to write your novel” ...I feel guilty. I tell myself that I “should” be doing other things in my business, like focusing on income-generating projects, or doing life admin stuff with the move, and so on.
And you know what I end up doing? I find tasks to do. Little things that might not be urgent, but they feel more “worthy” of my time.
It’s ridiculous, and honestly it goes against everything I stand for as a Productivity Strategist.
Because there’s nothing wrong with spending our time and energy on things that bring us joy. We don’t need to feel guilty about working on our creative pursuits. It is not a guilty pleasure. It is not self-indulgent. So why do we tell ourselves that it is?
It is ingrained in us by the society that we live in, that some projects or tasks are more worthy of our time than others. This is simply not true. You get to decide what is worthy of your time and energy. You get to decide what feels good to you. No one else gets to decide that.
This is 100% easier said than done. Again, I’m a Productivity Strategist, and I’ve STILL found myself struggling with this lately! And that’s a big piece of it: When we are experiencing an upheaval in our lives—as with the pandemic for all of us this past year and a half, or in my case with moving these past few weeks—we are that much more likely to give in to our doubts or feelings of guilt. It’s harder to have perspective on our personal situation when we are juggling so many different unknowns or new experiences.
The writing struggle is real. Sometimes, we will feel guilty about spending time writing, and we might even let that guilt stop us in our tracks from working on our writing projects.
I do not believe that the solution is to try to force that guilt down or eliminate it entirely. Instead, we can use this opportunity as information and education, and ask ourselves questions like,
- What exactly do I feel guilty about?
- Why do I feel guilty about this task versus that task?
- If I didn’t have this guilt, what might I do next?
- What are some possible avenues I can take at this time, to honour my struggle while also giving myself permission to focus on my creative pursuits?
- ...and so on.
Overcoming guilt and empowering clients to work on the projects that bring them joy is something I’m very good at doing as a Productivity Strategist, and frankly, having this recent experience in my own life, with writing my book, has been fantastic for reminding me of the exact thoughts and feelings that my clients are going through when they come to me with this problem. So I’m choosing to see this writing struggle and guilt as a chance for me to be that much better at my job.
Speaking of which, if you want help with this, we can work together in a one-on-one capacity to assess your productivity systems and strategies, alleviate your guilt and frustration, and make progress on your dreamy projects—like writing a book! Visit SaganMorrow.com/workwithme to book your spot. Link is in the show notes.
The writing struggle is real. Guilt can be a very powerful feeling. But if we try to ignore it, or if we let ourselves succumb to it, then we aren’t addressing the real issue at hand: the reason for why you’re feeling guilty. When we can get to the bottom of it, the root problems, then we can so much more effectively manage it and work through it.
It’s okay to feel guilty about writing. It’s okay to struggle to sit down and write, even when you really want to do it. You are not alone in this struggle. And you don’t have to handle it all on your own, either.
On that note, I’m now going to wrap up today’s episode of Indie Author Weekly so I can return to my novel! It’s writing time.
As always, you can access the show notes for this episode, including all links and additional resources, at SaganMorrow.com/podcast.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Please take 2 minutes to rate and review Indie Author Weekly on Apple Podcasts—I really appreciate your support.
Until next week, this is Sagan Morrow, signing off the Indie Author Weekly podcast.