On Perseverance

When a project takes years to complete, it’s easy for your internal monologue to sound like the scene in Saw VI where all you can hear is the phrase ‘right now you’re feeling helpless’ on repeat. Sometimes, even the most exciting projects can feel as though they’ll never be over or improve from their current state. As a writer, there is no feeling I am more familiar with.

It isn’t just the slow process, but the uncertainty that comes with the industry. It is a big risk to take to pursue a beloved hobby, and you may feel as though nothing will come from your work. I can assure you it will, and want to convince you to keep going.

That comes with one important caveat: make sure you love it.

Suffering for what you love is a specific type of suffering. If you don’t like the direction your project is going but love the project, love the hobby, and dream of success, work hard to make it better. Doubting the quality is natural when you’ve spent hours and hours looking at it, and if you keep a level head and take breaks you’ll be able to mold it into something great.

I know nobody wants to hear a speech about following your dreams that you’d hear in a coming-of-age movie. They don’t always translate to real life, but I’m here to tell you that where there’s a will, there’s a way.

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Connect with people!

Connecting with people is bound to provide you with a support system that keeps you going through arduous periods in your project. Writers like myself spend a lot of time in our houses, at our desks tapping away at a keyboard and losing ourselves in our fictional worlds. It is important to remember the strength of friendship, family, and networking. People are amazing.

Discipline AND motivation, not one or the other.

Discipline wins over motivation when it comes to finishing a project, and if you are serious about writing you will need it. However, you can become burnt out. That’s where motivation does come in handy. Reading books, talking with other writers, participating in challenges, and creating moodboards are just some of the ways you can motivate yourself. Recently, the books I have been reading have given me a much better grasp on my style as well as how I want to pace my book, and every creative person will come to notice and pick things out of the art form they are passionate about. It is a brilliant source of motivation and one that has given me a lot of confidence. I’m sure that even if I don’t perfectly execute my ideas, my effort will pay off.

Look at a bigger picture.

A way to alleviate doubt when it comes to writing is to not look back quite as much. Editing is important, but there is a point where you need to stop reading over the same passage or chapter and come back to it after a few more. Sometimes returning to them after breaks just isn’t enough, especially if your self-doubt is heavy. Remember also that you will write other drafts and pass the manuscript through editors, so not every paragraph needs to be perfect after you write it.

Look into the limelight…

A classic but reliable piece of advice is that you ought to remember you aren’t the only one. Others have struggled to persevere. There’s a story authors like to tell about JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ being rejected by 12 publishers, but there are so many other examples of successful artists struggling to persevere. Even Olivia Rodrigo, a huge pop-star, has shared that she finds periods of doubt in her creative process where she finds it difficult to ‘be brave and keep going’. Attempting to break into the industry you’re in love with is so worth it, because you could either become as big as Rowling or Rodrigo or have a pleasant community to support you as you work part-time.

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To prove I’m worth my salt, I’ll tell you where perseverance has got me so far. I have a great deal of content written and am feeling extremely confident about the direction in which this project is heading. I truly feel successful. A question I’m keeping near the back of my mind is the exact order of the first few sections and chapters. I think that I will shuffle certain things around during the editing process to make sure that the desired effect is produced.

In conclusion: if you love your art, please keep working on it. You will get out of any slumps, learn about yourself, and ultimately feel much more confident. 

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Now, if you have read this far I can only assume you enjoy my content. I hope you aren’t too disappointed to hear that I will be reducing my posting schedule from fortnightly to monthly. Due to the date that this post has fallen on, it will be the first of every month. So, if you haven’t already, subscribe for monthly posts and put my perseverance to the test!