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The truth is good writing is hard work. The life of a writer is not the idealized life it is imagined to be. There is work involved. Hard, boring, internal-resistance fighting and procrastination mitigating work. Stephen King\u2019s book On Writing[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> and Steven Pressfield\u2019s The War of Art[4]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> provide an inside scoop on the life of a writer. King\u2019s book is part memoir of his writing career, part advice on the craft, and part reflection on life itself. Pressfield\u2019s book is about the artist\u2019s enemy of internal resistance, how to overcome this enemy, and finding the true source of creativity from within. In this post, I will talk about two key ingredients to writing. Warning: these are very boring, uninspiring, and yet essential to the task of writing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Showing Up<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The first ingredient is the courageous act of daily showing up for battle. This is saying yes to, once again, fighting the enemy Pressfield calls resistance. Consistently approaching one\u2019s desk, even when this is the last place one wants to be, choosing to sit and do the work, is key to producing great writing. King uses Anthony Trollope as an example of a writer who daily shows up to do the work, and reaps the harvest of vast volumes of books. King writes,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He wrote for two and a half hours each morning before leaving for work. This schedule was ironclad. If he was in mid-sentence when the two and a half hours expired, he left that sentence unfinished until the next morning. And if he happened to finish one of his six-hundred-page heavyweights with fifteen minutes of the session remaining, he wrote The End, set the manuscript aside, and began work on the next book.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n King, himself, says he aims for 2,000 words \u2013 about ten pages \u2013 every day.[6]<\/a>Pressfield provides the example of Somerset Maugham, highlighting him as a true professional writer, which is Pressfield\u2019s definition of one who shows up and writes whether he or she likes it or not, rather than one who waits for inspiration. \u201cSomeone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he replied. “Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”[7]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Focus<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am someone who enjoys writing. Actually, correction, let me start over. I am someone who enjoys being seen<\/em> writing, and then having people I know at the coffee shop interrupt, ask what I\u2019m working on, and be impressed by my regurgitation of profound wisdom exiting my mouth (but seemingly never arriving on the word doc). Interruption is a welcomed distraction! Afterall, I want<\/em> to give in to resistance and stop writing. But, I have learned that if I want to reap the benefit of producing good work, I must get into my focus space, close the door, and ignore the distractions. The late Eugene Peterson, who is responsible for The Message<\/em> translation of the Bible, was once asked to go to dinner with arguably the greatest star in the music world: U2’s lead singer, Bono. But Peterson did something no one else would do. He declined a dinner invitation from Bono (who would later become a good friend to Peterson). What good reason could Peterson have for declining such an invitation? He had a deadline to meet with his Bible translation. Later on, Peterson, in an interview at Point Loma Nazarene University, was playfully chided for this. The interviewer, Dean Nelson, said \u201cYou may be the only person alive who would turn down the opportunity just to meet a deadline. I mean, it\u2019s Bono for crying out loud!\u201d Without skipping a beat, Peterson responded \u201cDean, it was Isaiah.\u201d Sometimes being a writer means turning down exciting invitations that, in actuality, are resistance in disguise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Writer\u2019s Sacred, Boring, Unassuming, Sanctuary<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe we need to reimagine the life of a writer. Maybe the hip caf\u00e9, the free-spirited approach to creativity, inspiration, and work needs to give way to the consistent, boring, unassuming work of daily showing up, resisting the internal resistance, and focusing on the task. The writer\u2019s workspace may be boring and unassuming. But, on the other hand, it is a sacred space where deep work and creativity happen. This is the writer\u2019s sanctuary where she worships God through the work \u2013 dare I say, vocation \u2013 for which she is placed on earth to carry out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About a year ago, my wife wanted to rearrange our office space. My desk faced a window. In doing my work, the smallest distraction outside that window would take my focus away. There was a closet we hardly used in this room. We came up with the idea of taking everything out and repainting the closet to create a work nook.<\/p>\n My writing nook.<\/p><\/div>\n In this nook, thoughts are free to flow, distraction is limited, and resistance is wrestled down. In this sanctuary, I worship.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life<\/em> (Thomas Nelson, 2009), 245.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> William Zinsser, On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction<\/em> (Harper Collins, 2012), 3.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft\u202f: Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King<\/em>, Twentieth-anniversary edition (New York: Scribner, 2020).<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles<\/em> (Black Irish Entertainment LLC, 2002).<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> King, On Writing<\/em>, 152.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/desk-954x1024.jpg\")
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