Here is why Writing is Difficult
Here is why Writing is Difficult
I believe you must have heard the statement, “writing is difficult” before. As cliche as this might sound, it is true and this is because writing is about communicating ideas to other people in a written form. Hence, there is usually the need to communicate these ideas, properly in terms of logic, meaning, and grammar. At every given time when you are required to write, you are tasked with bringing some random (maybe not random) thoughts out of your head into a paper or blog or whatever. At every junction, you are either asking yourself either of these questions –
- Does this make any sense at all
- Is this grammatically correct?
- Will the readers understand what I am trying to pass across? etc?
These questions present an opportunity for doubt to set in and alter the entire writing process. However, the difficulty that writing presents is also the reason writing is super important than you can ever imagine. Here is why
- On the one hand, you are learning to make stuff. If there is anything difficult to do, it is making stuff. Think about how a mother births a baby – a very agonizing experience. Think about how many times it must take to make the bicycle work or a mobile phone or anything there is. Thomas Edison is said to have tried 1000 times before making the light bulb work. Hence, sitting down to create something almost out of nothing is going to be difficult. You are giving life to something – it shouldn’t come easy
- Secondly, translating ideas into meaningful sentences is probably a genius level. While writing, you are doing a lot of things at a time. You are looking for the right set of words to string together to bring some abstract ideas to life. Yet, these words must convey meaning and must also be grammatically correct. Hence, there is a lot of thought process that goes into writing. You are constantly thinking through, trying to declutter your mind of all the mental dirt to get out as much value as possible whilst making tons of decisions at the same time.
So, yes, writing is meant to be difficult and that is why many people shy away from writing. They cannot come to comprehend how much work they need to bring out something valuable because they either doubt their ability to do so or they are plain lazy.
You must have seen a lot of blog posts try to provide easy routes to writing by giving endless tips. Sorry, not so sorry, writing will never get easy no matter the tip. The greatest tip, however, that I have found to work is – accepting that writing is work and choosing to put in the work. When you accept this, your mindset changes totally. People who seek shortcuts to writing are saying
- I do not care enough about my thought process to sit down and turn my ideas into reality no matter how long it would take. Hence, the need to outsource their thinking.
- I am too lazy to put myself through the rigorous work of decluttering my mind by digging deep enough to find gold.
Writing is thinking hard to make excellent decisions. The by-product of writing is that you become a better decision-maker as writing involves making many difficult choices. It sharpens you and if it comes very easily, then everybody might just enjoy all the benefits that come with writing. As an aside, this is why AI cannot replace writing. A good work of art is not only judged by the outcome of the art but also by the hard work involved in the creation of the art.
The more you write, the better your thinking process becomes but it comes at a price – a difficult and costly price, one that is worth paying.
When next you find yourself complaining about the difficulty with writing, remind yourself that it is a job that is worth doing.
to be continued…