The Hardest Part of Writing and What to Do About It by Bonni Goldberg – Guest Post and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Bonni Goldberg will be awarding a prize to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, the winner can choose between a 30 minute coaching call, a Q&A Zoom with their group, or feedback on 3 double spaced pages of their work (via email). In addition, a free ebook about balancing writing & marketing will be given to everyone who enters the raffle. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

I’ve written, taught writing, and hung out with writers for a few decades. Based on my experience and observations, the hardest part of writing is your attitude towards it. The best way I know to manage yours is this; think of your writing obstacles as salt.

Basically, salt is good. And so are your obstacles. But it depends on how you use both. Chemically, salt is necessary to maintain the health of your body and for you to thrive.

With no writing obstacles, you can’t evolve as a writer. Whether it’s a plot problem, a world-building issue, or your dislike of writing description, it’s through solving it you become a better writer.

Salt deficiency can lead to death.

Without writing challenges, you wouldn’t maintain passion for writing. It feels like the opposite: the challenges stifle your passion. You quit because you don’t know what to do. But most often, the issue is resistance to pivoting, experimenting, or asking for help.

Whether you’re a master of structure or content, humor or suspense, without having to work on some aspect of writing that stretches you, you will get bored and stop.

While salt enhances the flavor of foods, too much of it ruins the recipe. Your challenges and obstacles either enliven your relationship to writing or spoil it, depending on how you use them. If you don’t have enough time to write a novel, don’t give up. Write a short story for now.

Salt preserves foods that nourish people in times of need. The challenges your writing presents are some of the greatest gifts your writing offers you. One of America’s most preeminent short story writers, Grace Paley, wrote those stories because she couldn’t succeed as a poet.

Salt can torture people when rubbed into an open wound. When you see your obstacles as the enemy, they will damage your writing and deplete your energy and confidence. Instead, try welcoming a challenge the way you welcome its remedy. After all, they’re a package deal.

The hardest part of writing is approaching the blocks of salt with a grain of salt—knowing your writing challenges are your personal invitations to grow as a writer.

In The Write Balance, the companion book to the beloved bestseller, Room to Write, Bonni Goldberg demonstrates how to find fulfillment as a writer by embracing three key aspects of writing: 1) Percolation: what takes place before a first draft is written; 2) Revision: the writer’s role after the initial draft; and 3) Going Public: the writer’s mission once the writing is done. Filled with tools, examples and exercises, Bonni’s guide offers motives, choices, and encouragement for writers to appreciate and to be creative in the phases before and beyond a first draft. Whether you’re new to writing or a pro, become more passionate and balanced in your writing life.

Enjoy an Excerpt

I wrote my first writing book. Room to Write, to invite people to enter writing creatively, to trust their intuition and discover and use their tendencies, passions, and resistances as fodder for more writing. At that time people seemed to need to free up their innate creative juices and get the words flowing. Since then, at book appearances and during my workshops and writing courses, I’ve repeatedly had this experience: People thank me for helping them to trust themselves as writers and then ask me how to take the next step. What do you see as the next step? I ask.

Whether the answer had to do with getting an agent, writing longer works, feeling legitimate, or any of the many other facets of creative writing, the undertone was the same: a sense of longing or unrest about writing. It felt as if each person was saying to me, “Okay, I get the words out, I even trust them sometimes; now what?” This book is my answer…

The writers I know who are passionate and grounded, who truly love and respect their writing life, consciously attend to three aspects of writing that often get short shrift in the heat and excitement of raw creation: 1. Percolation—the process that takes place before a first draft takes shape 2. Revision—the writer’s role after the initial draft 3. Going Public—a writer’s mission once the writing is done.

About the Author: Bonni Goldberg is the author of The Write Balance: How to Embrace Percolation, Revision & Going Public, the companion book to the best-seller Room to Write: Daily Invitations to a Writer’s Life. Bonni is an award-winning poet and writer. She is the creator of the 2 Minute Journals™ series. Both traditionally and indie published, her books include non-fiction for adults and fiction and non-fiction for young readers. Her essays and blog posts can be found in numerous print and online publications.

Bonni teaches creative writing at colleges and leads writing workshops internationally for all ages. She knows everyone is creative, and she supports people to discover and share their authentic, meaningful and imaginative experiences through words.

Whether through her writings or through teaching, her methods and perspectives continue to empower thousands of adults, families, and children.

Bonni is also a Jewish educator. She speaks, writes, and leads workshops on Jewish topics such as Jewish identity, rituals and antisemitism at Jewish women’s events, JCCs, and conferences.

Bonni Goldberg lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner in life, and some creative projects, artist Geo Kendall.

Get your FREE copy of “Writing & Marketing: 8 Authors Reveal Their Secrets” here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway