The struggle with my writing process is taking the time to write/edit. I write because it is a part of who I am, and that is what drives me to continue. Ideas have never been hard for me to come up with, as I feel that writing is about gathering stories, that I store up and then revisit them when I write them down to honor the storytellers.

https://preview.redd.it/c5z8u4ucgzpc1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e664f354197a01827758b90b724c82044d7eac6

For me this is a combination of many people and their traits — a great-grandmother’s Scottish determination, a great-grandfather’s gentle kindness, a friend’s joy and encouragement, that random person you meet and make eye contact with for a moment before traipsing along your way to the bus stop — these are the stories that combine and morph into words I put down on paper that may look very different from their originating inspiration, but they are all pieces that make up a completed whole.

Finding the time to collect stories and gather them into the net of words and give those words over to the form of sentences and to breathe life into those sentences by creating paragraphs is the hardest part. Also, revising and editing is difficult for me. How many re-writes make it “good enough?” When do you reach the point where you have nothing to add and nothing to remove? My overall feelings on writing are neither love, fear, or putting up with it. Writing is a constant. I am comfortable with writing, but not overly passionate about it. It is just there — a solid and unchanging thing.

My best writing experience has been collaborating with others on various projects and connecting over common interests, finding that though miles and continents may separate us, there are “kindred spirits” all over the globe. The worst writing experiences have been when people read more into words than is there, and I have tried to figure out where they may be coming from and how those conclusions could have been drawn.

https://preview.redd.it/9t3gi5tegzpc1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e5dec67dd074c8a6c9062f51ad6fdc639a09c29

The times when I have had to realize that though I may have the best of intentions, sometimes there will be misunderstandings, and I need to be willing to consider how the misunderstandings may arise and then to also realize that occasionally, it will not make sense and to be ok with that too.