Writing is hard.
By: Thomas Mallick
Tags: Writers Block, Writing On Writing, Writing, Writers Life, Advice For New Writers

One of the most misery-inducing experiences is spending meticulous hour after meticulous hour building a puzzle only to find that a piece is missing. When a word is _____ or in the place wrong, it’s obvious. In some cases, it can throw the flow of the writing into left field or leave the reader in a state of confusion.

My obsession with finding the exact right words to place in the exact right order dominates and inhibits my writing. Oftentimes, the very act that sought to clear things up ends up muddying the waters.

To add to the problem, I find myself constantly engaging in the lethal practice of comparing myself to authors whose writing expertly develops consequential arguments and, at the same time, flawlessly incorporates a perfect number of comedic interventions. My one-stop-shop for this is Jia Tolentino, a writer for the New Yorker. She analyzes complex contemporary issues like racism and sexual abuse while making the analysis incredibly interesting, digestible, and easy to understand. The sheer creativity and wit imbued in each of her pieces is palpable.

I bring up my idolization of Jia’s writing style as an inside look at my writing thought-process: when I write, I find myself constantly comparing my work to that of accomplished writers.

That way of thinking and writing is toxic.

“Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better… Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.” William Zinsser, “On Writing Well”

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Writing is like directly linking a fiber-optic cable to your thought processes; to write is to click ‘download’ on your brain. You lay your thinking out and watch as your brain’s inner workings appear as dark pixels on a white screen or ink on paper.

Writing style is as unique to a person as their fingerprints. Actually, I take that back. Your fingerprints are given to you when you’re born. I don’t think that writing style is established at birth, rather, it’s influenced by your entire life and who, what, and everything you are exposed to along the way. The funny thing about writing style is that some of the funniest people I know don’t write with humor. Writing style can be a distinct personality, separate from your social personality.

Reflecting on my own writing style and writing process, I realize that they are afflicted by my negative traits and thoughts. I am an innately comparative person. I compare myself to others, I compare my writing to others’, I compare my personality to others’. This act of constant comparison seeps into my writing. I compare my writing to that of others and this very act negatively impacts its quality.

The experience of writing should not be driven by perfection, but rather by relation. Writing should, at its most base function, act to relate and resonate with the reader.

“Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and it will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity” William Zinsser, “On Writing Well”

As a tremendously-imperfect person whose i’s are crossed, t’s are dotted, and ducks are in anything but a row, attempting to write perfectly is attempting to relate to something that I am not.

People are imperfect. Relate with people, relate with imperfection.