I'm Not A Writer

This is what you CAN'T tell yourself.  Ever.  If you hit writer's block and you think it's eternal, don't give up writing.  What do we do, then?  Our story has reached a point where it is "stuck".  You can't push it forwards anymore, the details are getting too heavy and you can't remember what the point of your story is.  Don't give up writing.  Don't tell yourself that you're "not a writer".  Because you can be.  You only have to try.  Try your hardest.  If you get to the point you want to give up, don't push yourself.

Writing is like Yoga.  When you do yoga, you look around at all the other people who are more flexible, more balanced, stronger, fitter.  Oh, you think, I'm so weak.  I can't do this.  But if you try, you eventually will get better.  But don't push yourself too hard.  If you can't settle down into a pose, don't force yourself down.  That's how you injure yourself.  That's how you pull a muscle or pop a joint.  If you can't do a pose at all, don't stop doing yoga just because you can't do a single pose.  Try a different pose.  Start with a different story.  Try again. Start over.

Writers are only famous for writing, but what people don't know about them is how many times those writers had to re-write the stories.  They don't just sit down with 300 sheets of paper and a pen and finish their story in a week.  Writing is a slow process that you need patience for.  You have to re-read your work, cut out characters, stitch in new ones, edit out a scene or two, maybe you even have to cut out a chapter.  Re-do your work a little before you decide to give up on it.

Don't be lazy.  The longer you put off your work, the longer it will take to get back into it again.  Don't say that you don't have time for writing because, if you have time to go on Facebook, you have plenty of time to write a sentence or two everyday.  I bet you can write a paragraph daily.

Don't write all the time.  You need to read a little and write a little.  And you don't have to start at the beginning.  You can read a page or two in the middle.  Take notes about your characters.  I know that I always forget what color eyes my characters have or how old they are.  Write down in a different file or a different sheet of paper all of the important things there is to know about your characters.  Eye color, hair, age, grade, occupation, family, pets, whatever you can think of.

Do whatever it takes but DON'T GIVE UP ON BEING A WRITER.  Because you aren't a bad writer, you're just bad at motivating yourself to write.