A Lesson In Overcoming Discouragement

Writing can be so discouraging.

Now, I really don’t mean it the way you are probably thinking. I absolutely love to write. Writing helps me relieve stress and lets my imagination run free. It’s the thing that makes me happier than just about anything else.

But on days, no weeks, no months like I’ve had, it can be very hard to fit writing into my crazy schedule. With school, work, and my other commitments, it sure is hard to sit down and put fingers to keyboard. When I write, I like to devote hours or days to it, but when I only have a stolen hour here and there, it’s so hard to get into.

I have two novels that I am not quite halfway through writing, but in times like these, that terrible doubt, that tells me I won’t ever finish them, comes slinking back into my mind. This doubt convinces me that I’ll never have enough time, energy, or the ability to finish either of these projects.

That’s why writing can be so discouraging.

Writing a novel is hard work and when it’s just a ‘hobby,’ it feels impossible.

I’m not giving up, though. I’ve gotten this far and maybe my first novel won’t be done this year, but I know I will finish it.

Times like these have definitely taught me that we go through phases in our lives. There is a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to search and a time to give up (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8). For me, this is just a time to focus on school and my education and as much as that can pain me, it’s just what I have to do. One day, it will be my time to write fully and completely, but I’m not got into be discouraged that that time isn’t now.