Writing When the Story is Failing

While writing earlier this week, the process felt like running in sand uphill. There was little evidence of progress. The desire to quit was great. It was then I paused and scribbled in my notebook a bit of advise to myself—advice perhaps you can use in your own work.

“You must write, even when you feel like you’re only failing. Perhaps most when you feel you’re failing.”

Reading these sentences there in my notebook, I wondered why I’d written that last one. Why did that ring true? Why would writing when you feel you’re failing be somehow more important than writing at other points in a project? Over the past few days I’ve concluded the work takes on a certain criticality when it’s not going well. It’s imperative that we, when the story is a struggle, bear down and do the work. The reason for this is that failed drafts are what get you to the final draft. The focus of writing is not solely the draft you’re working on; it’s also the draft that will come after. The current draft is a means to an end. The only means to the end.