It’s no secret—I’ve been experiencing a bout of writer’s block with my creative projects that has knocked me on my butt lately. There are a lot of reasons for this, chief of which is that lately I just feel exhausted and very burnt out. But another reason has been (cont.)

that I just don’t feel like my writing is good. I feel like I’m supposed to be at this like different caliber of writing or whatever, like there’s a sign that says, “you must be this tall to be a writer!” and my words just don’t stack up. (cont.)

There are a lot of “rules” for writing.
- don’t have too many tropes & make sure it’s not cliché, watch out for adverbs, don’t start/end your story this way, etc. & while it’s all valid advice, sometimes I admittedly worry too much about the “rules.” (cont.)

I’m not some literary hero. I don’t know it all. But, even though I’m young, I’ve been studying this craft awhile, and I continue to work at it and TRY. And that means something—even if I still implement tropes and clichés & my adverbs get away from me. (cont.)

So I’ve been trying to work on a new project to ease myself back into a creative and productive mindset, one that once allowed me to tap into new worlds and push past doubt. But I couldn’t find a story in myself at all, guys. (cont.)

Me, someone with THOUSANDS of ideas racing through my head on the reg, couldn’t find a single story I felt passionate about writing. And I had to have this talk with myself—I had to ask, “What is stopping you—why are none of these ideas resonating?” And I realized: (cont.)

I am literally just scared of disappointing myself. I’ve fallen back into a perfectionist mindset. Every idea I had had something slightly “wrong” with it, a writing no-no that made me think I just couldn’t proceed at all. Too trope-y. Too overdone. Too tame. Too wild. (cont.)

I didn’t start putting words down on the page until I finally just said, “F*** it. I’m going to just write it anyway and see what happens.” Who cares? Who cares if it’s not perfect? Probably just you. So why stand in your own way? (cont.)

I honestly gained my courage to write my stories and share my writing on @wattpad, and I want to find that feeling again by starting another serialized story on the platform and just running with it, just like I used to. (cont.)

It won’t be perfect, but neither were those early stories! And, for the most part, readers didn’t care. ONE LITTLE SPELL is the most wacky, all-over-the-place work of trope-y cliches I’ve ever written in my life and somehow it has over 1 Million views. SO WHO CARES! (cont.)

18-year-old Ariel certainly did not have a single care to give about posting her work and just writing, so why should I now? Why should any of us? (cont.)

Yeah, ok, so I look back & cringe at some of the stuff I wrote. If that’s the main price I have to pay for growth then WOW that’s cheap. So don’t get in your own way like I have been. Don’t let yourself, or the world, convince you you suck. (cont.)

TLDR: You’re a writer, so write. Write the flaming dumpster fire. Let it out and sort through the mess later!! It can be hard—but it’s freeing. (End)