• How many people break their new years resolution, stop going to the gym after two sessions, fail their diet at the sight of a chocolate bar? Sticking something out requires discipline, and if it’s something you feel can be put off until the next day, it’s even harder. It will never be urgent.Sticking to a writing routine is difficult, especially when starting.
• There’s never enough time. We can carve out a little niche here and there for writing, but the truth is things will never get done quickly enough to keep us satisfied, and there are always other commitments gnawing away.
• There is a lot of competition out there. A lot. How many writing blogs are there by people who haven’t made it yet? How many fledgling writers reading them? It’s no wonder your story hasn’t been picked up. It’s going to take a lot of persistence
• First drafts look like crap. It’s easy for us to write and write and look back and think, oh God, I can’t do this, it’s terrible. It’s difficult to write well, and easy to dismiss something as rubbish and forget the whole thing. But almost every writer writes badly in their first draft. Chill.

So next time you feel like you’ve not done enough, remember that this is hard. It takes a lot of work and dedication. You should expect to struggle occasionally. But you’re still here, you’re still doing it. That kind of attitude is half the battle.

Now, the list above is rather short, there are bound to be many more reasons that you can think of. Share them in the comments, please. And remember, these aren’t excuses, but they are reasons to cut ourselves a little slack every now and again. Not too much. Just a little.

It was something of a mini revelation. Only a very small point, and very obvious, but one of those things that had occurred to my conscious mind before – it had never struck me (as they say).

It’s the closing chapter of the “CV” section of the book, and is entitled “what writing is”. In it he writes that when he is writing

I’m in another place, a basement place, where there are lots of bright lights and clear images. This is a place I’ve built for myself over the years. It’s a far seeing place.

I recognise this of course, as many writers will. There is a place you go inside your head to see the things you do, and it is from that place that paragraphs will form and travel down your arms, to your fingers, to the page.

It is a little beside the point, but after reading this I thought I would imagine my writing place. The image that came to mind was a warm dungeon, candlelit, and possibly with a well-stocked fireplace nearby. In it I’m writing with pen and paper. I don’t know why that image comes, although it might be to do with Stephen King describing his own place as being in a “basement”. It might be a fun idea to imagine your own writing place and picture it every time you sit down to write. Any ideas in the comments, please.

Anyway, where were we? The real point of this post is what Stephen King goes on to say about reading. He describes it as a similar place, and when I think about it, it does feel like that. It’s interesting to think of reading being the same “place” that writing comes from. I keep a wad of scrap paper stuffed into the back of any book I’m reading. If I feel I want to make a note, I take a piece of paper, write the page number on it (in case it falls out), and write my notes on that, putting it between the pages like a bookmark when I’m done. At this point I wrote:

Writing uses the same place as reading does. That semi-conscious, slightly dark and blurry place. Not like you’re looking at things through distorted glass – that’s too cold and distant. More like you’re submerged in warm water.

Weirdly, I never made the connection.

It’s a more “prosey” note than I’d normally make, but I was inspired – I’d never thought of it like that! Reading is easy for me. I enjoy it a lot. Seeing writing as very similar to reading (the same even), takes some of its intimidating nature away.

In short, I will try and think of writing as another from of reading. Instead of reading from the page, I am reading on to it. This change in attitude may make writing easier. What do you think?