Top 6 Excuses for Not Writing Every Day

Posted on Jul 21, 2023

tl;dr: What the title said.

Updated 25 August 2023.

Introduction

Have you ever had the following situation happen?

I’m touching the familiar homing bars on the keyboard’s F and J keys and staring at my laptop’s screen. The road map of veins on my hands’ backs throws off my attention. 🤫

The clock displays 10:00 a.m. Sixty minutes have passed, and I see no words on my screen. 😿

I should play [insert favorite video game here 🎮] or watch [insert movie title here 🎦] instead.

What should my first perfect sentence say? 🧐

Writing’s hard. I should just quit. 😩

☝🏼

Backstory

I’m not proud of my public writing life because I don’t have one. 😒

One day, I bought a domain name, paid a year’s worth to a website host, set up my blog, and wrote one article.

I had months of zero posts on my new blog. Then, I read an email from the website host that the hosting fee would expire in a month. Before the month’s end, I deleted my blog.

Though I had a new blog waiting to fill it up with content, I watched TV shows and movies and played video games instead of writing new content.

In the years following, I tried keeping new blogs for the second and third time. But those tries ended with the same result: zero content and deleted blogs.

Why was I experiencing the same result?

Every night, the voice in my head would say, “Why didn’t you write today?”

In the mornings, the voice would say, “I’m going to write something today.” But that voice could’ve sounded more motivated.

Then, a louder voice would say, “Why aren’t you writing?” 😳

☝🏼

STFU Mind!

Excuse 1: Overthinking

Overthink: “to think too much about (something): to put too much time into thinking about or analyzing (something) in a way that is more harmful than helpful”

I became aware of overthinking during the first weeks of my JavaScript language course.

The assignment had simple instructions, and I couldn’t understand them. I had thoroughly read the assigned chapter, but the logic behind the basic JavaScript concepts confused me, and I panicked.

My head overflowed with thoughts like:
I’m a bonehead.
JavaScript is too complicated,
or I’m going to fail this class.

Annoyed and frustrated, I shared my panic on the JavaScript course’s Discord channel, our class’s space where my classmates and I could inquire about or discuss assignments and concepts.

A few classmates and my instructor replied that I was overthinking the assignment.

“Don’t overthink the assignment,” my professor said. “Read the chapter, try and understand the concepts. Take the problems one at a time. Take a deep breath. You can do it.”

A few of my classmates offered they’ll help if I got stuck.

What does overthinking a JavaScript assignment have anything to do with not writing every day?

JavaScript is a programming language used on the web and mobile applications.

So, learning JavaScript is like learning a foreign language like Spanish. And you also learn the rules that control the structure of the symbols, punctuation, and words so the computer can understand what you want it to execute.

To be minimally proficient with JavaScript, you must learn its basic concepts and rules and practice writing it.

I read somewhere that if you’re overthinking about JavaScript confusing you, you’re not writing and learning the language.

So, like writing, you’re overthinking if you’re thinking too much and not writing.

☝🏼

Excuse 2: High Self-expectations

I won’t settle for mediocre. I won’t deliver subpar work that reflects that I didn’t give my best. This belief began in seventh grade.

I had a classmate; we’ll call her Lorelei, who aced all our class subjects.

One day, at the start of one of our classes, while waiting for our teacher, one of my classmates asked Lorelei why she was so good at acing everything.

Lorelei said she liked acing everything because it made her feel great.

What Lorelei said changed me.

We created a historical timeline about a week later during our World History class. I volunteered to draw Vladimir Lenin’s one-inch square portrait.

I challenged myself to illustrate my best Lenin portrait and my best I did! I felt proud of my tiny, detailed piece; my teacher and classmates kept telling me they liked it. 😅

I exhibited Lenin’s portrait onto our history timeline. I felt my pride increasing. Since then, I’ve always had high expectations to give my best work.

How can always wanting to give my best prevent me from writing every day?

Wanting always to give my best can drive me to excel, but my self-expectations can look like a two-dimensional image of a cartoon character.

I can get so attached to my expectations that I see illusions. I have a vision stuck in my head of how the outcome will play out. If the event doesn’t go where I want it to, I get so disappointed and frustrated that I can’t decide or act during the next step.

Suppose I have self-expectations about wanting to be the world’s most excellent writer. Yes, I did have this unrealistic expectation. 😅

Know that no one is the world’s most excellent writer and that many fantastic writers exist.

☝🏼

Excuse 3: Perfectionism Anxiety

Perfectionism anxiety looks like a mysterious staring figure wearing a long black overcoat, and they mock me. They collab with fear to keep me from writing!

“Your writing isn’t good enough; you suck!”

“There are better writers than you.”

“What would people think of your writing?”

Some writers might be better than me, and their writing style might be better than mine. But who cares about who’s better?

The amateur dreads becoming who she really is because
she fears that this new person will be judged by others as ‘different.’
Here’s the truth: the tribe doesn’t give a shit.

― Steven Pressfield

☝🏼

Excuse 4: Procrastination

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.

― Pablo Picasso

Because I enjoy these activities, I spend my time watching movies or TV shows, playing my favorite video game, or reading how-to articles instead of writing, and doing these activities is more effortless than writing.

I can write later. But I don’t know what might happen later.

This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death.
Most of death is already gone.
Whatever time has passed is owned by death.

— Seneca

My top regret is that I should’ve written every day and not procrastinated.

☝🏼

Excuse 5: Slacking Off

Writing is an endeavor. And deciding on a topic to write about and putting in the work is a lot.

I dreamt of becoming a writer in grade school and didn’t know then that writing involves much work.

I like working less and enjoy fun, effortless activities like watching movies and playing video games. If money came out of my ears, I might abandon myself to spending most of my time working less and enjoying the fun. 🤔

But spending most of my time avoiding the effort and not writing can keep me from pursuing my writing career. So, I must push myself to write more because writing every day helps me be better at it.

Writing experts say you can’t learn to write better if you don’t write or do the work.

☝🏼

Excuse 6: Fear of Vulnerability

I sometimes fear what the public might think of me and my imperfections.

Sorry, no skeletons 🦴💀 in the closet here. I’m very private, and staying in my hidden cave feels safe.

I like writing my opinions and thoughts in the comfort of my journal, where I can be most candid and vulnerable.

And writing is a vulnerable act that exposes me.

Vulnerability is not winning or losing;
it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.
Vulnerability is not weakness;
it’s our greatest measure of courage.
People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories
are the real badasses.

― Brené Brown

The real badass thing is cool, and I like the person more when I learn about their vulnerability; I can relate to them.

Another person’s vulnerability lets me see that I’m not the only one who thinks, feels, and acts a certain way, and though I don’t know them in person, I feel somewhat close to them.

☝🏼

Conclusion

Now that the excuses are plain to see, they’re my brain’s kicking up a fuss to overthink, quench my need for constant achievement, entertain perfectionism anxiety, and give in to procrastination, slacking off, fear of vulnerability.

Stop all the excuses and keep writing!

There’s no such thing as writer’s block.
That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.

— Terry Pratchett

☝🏼

Many better articulate, compelling, and engaging fiction and nonfiction writers are out there.

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