Breaking Through My Writing Blocks - My Story

Welcome to my new blog series - why aren’t YOU writing! (you can listen to this in the audio version below!)

I decided to write this series of blog posts, because I have recently met so many people who want to be writing, but aren’t. And I totally get it! Despite the fact that I have wanted to write a book since I was a teenager, I spent a lot of my time NOT writing. I mean - I did a fair amount of formal studying, and so in that time, I wrote emails, essays, and the occasional song parody, and made several false starts at writing books, and starting blogs. But I still felt a lot of resistance to writing the type of book that I wanted to. It was only in the past few years that I have been able to overcome my writing blocks, gain momentum and achieve my writing goals! 

Several of the conversations I have had over the past few years have been with people who have told me how impressed they are with the amount of writing I have done both through my blogs and my books. In addition, they often say that they wish they could write too, but there are so many reasons why they aren’t writing. So I thought that I would share openly a bit more of my journey to where I am today. 

In truth, I spent a lot more time not writing than anything else. When I was younger, I had the overwhelming urge to write a book. At that time, my favourite books included CS Lewis’ Narnia books, The Neverending Story, Enid Blyton’s school stories (St Clare’s being my favourite), and any of the epic fantasy series that my sister would bring home.

I imagined myself writing some long, intricate fiction book that a reader could get lost in. I even started a few.

However, I never got much momentum going past about page 10, and honestly, I felt as if my ideas were not good enough. 

As I got older and went through university, and I began travelling. I started writing long emails to my friends and family about the trips I was taking, so that they could hear about the places I had visited and what I was getting up to in the countries that I had dreamed about visiting - in Europe and beyond. Writing these emails was the start of my love affair with creative non-fiction. However, I felt overwhelmed by the technical aspect of starting a blog, and so my writing stayed in people’s inboxes. 

In addition, the false starts continued. When I finally decided to overcome my tech demons and start a blog, I had a free blogspot, and even dabbled with the Notes section on Facebook, where some of my posts still live to this day. I struggled to get momentum, and all this time, I still imagined myself writing an epic fantasy or fiction, as my reading tastes turned to Stephen King, Dennis Lehane and Neil Gaiman. I also started to read a lot more crime fiction - Lee Child, Particia Cornwell, Jo Nesbo and Kathy Reichs being my favourites. I also binged the entire Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and George RR Martin series, and read the old James Bond books. Basically, if it had pages, I’d give it a try.

I also joined a book club several years ago, and started reading the types of books that I might not have read in the past - including non-fiction and more serious books such as Cutting for Stone, and anything by Khaled Hosseini, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. And it was in my mid thirties that I finally worked up the courage to try to write a book again, and I signed up for an online course which took a writer through the process from start to finish. 

I was super excited to dive into this course, but from the time I started it, I felt stumped. And I had taken other courses by this organization before and had been blown away by them. But this course didn’t work for me at all. The planning style that they encouraged felt stifling, and I felt as if I could not be creative while writing in that way.

After making several attempts to write a book that had been on my mind for a while, I gave up, and figured that maybe writing a book was a dream that would remain unfulfilled. A few years later, I finally wrapped my head around the tech enough to start a blog, and I had a topic that I was excited to dig into.

I’ll be the first to admit, I made many mistakes, some of which I am still correcting 3 years later, but also it was the thing that got me to start writing consistently, and more importantly sharing that writing. And a year after I started blogging, I met a writing coach, who convinced me that if I had desired to write a book for all of my life, then there was probably one in there somewhere, and I should not rule it out just yet. (And this is something that I also believe now).

I am so pleased that I met her, and that she encouraged me not to give up on that dream, because I was able to write that first book with her encouragement, and a few more since then. I might even be starting on that epic fiction I dreamed of.

One of the biggest changes that I experienced over the time of blogging and writing my books was finding my own rhythm as a writer, and understanding that I could write MY way. Even when that way didn’t fit in with the course I tried to take, and a lot of the advice that I was reading out there, finding a way to plan and write that felt good to me was one of the biggest factors that has kept me writing over the past few years. I learned not to let my journey be defined by the false starts I had. And I learned that there is no wrong way to write your story.

So now you’re all caught up! You know about a few of the reasons I spent so long NOT writing. The next few posts are going to be about some of what helped me to break through those blocks and begin a writing journey that continues to this day, and which includes coaching those of YOU who want to be writing.

I really want to support those of you who aren’t writing to start your journey as well. I want to encourage you to continue dreaming about writing that amazing story - and to actually do it! I want you to write YOUR way. So if you want to find out your writing style (and spoiler alert - mine is intuitive) then take my FREE quiz! There are suggestions for many of the writing styles I have found at the end of the quiz (and you can take a peek at the other styles and see if any of those tips resonate with you). You will also have the chance to grab a training I wrote on setting yourself up for success as a writer. 

I am also going to be writing more about what has helped me (and some of the people I have been working with recently) overcome our blocks and start writing! And if you want more personalized support or to find out about how I can help you as a Writing Coach, then email me at 39andcountingblog@gmail.com and let me know why you aren’t writing, and I’ll see if I can help!!

Come back and comment below! Tell me why you aren’t writing, what your writing style is, and what you would like to know more about for your journey. 

And I send you big love from a small island!

I used some stock photos today!! Grateful for Photos by Ed Robertson and Aaron Burden on Unsplash