If you follow me on social media you know that I frequently go to see and meet writers, hear them talk about their craft, have them sign their books for me or others, and generally fan girl authors as much as possible. One of the reasons, is that since I’m single and actively not dating, I decided a few years ago to make myself get out more so I don’t sit in front of this screen until I fossilize. Another reason is now that I am officially a writer/author, I have a finer appreciation and limitless praise I like to offer other members of the cult…ahm, I mean community. Lastly, I learn an impressive amount when I listen, truly listen, to other writers. Often the gems they speak aloud rival what they might type on a page and frankly, it often puts this budding new career of mine into razor sharp perspective.
That happened recently when I went to a program at my new favorite place, to see and hear from Joe Hill. For those of you who have never read him, then you probably don’t follow horror writing or ComicCon or comic books or Stephen King or Netflix. If you’ve never heard of him at all there’s a chance you need to get out more too; but for now you can just google his name with the word author following it and all (or at least a significant amount) will be revealed. The light bulb went on for me when Mr. Hill answered a question from the audience.
Q: What would you say is the difference between writing a comic book and writing a novel?
A: “Well, writing comic books is fun. Writing a novel is hard.”
Joe Hill, genius. Author of ‘Full Throttle’
10.17.19 at The Center for Fiction
You said it Joe. For real. For true. It occurred to me, such eloquence could easily go viral as a meme. Writing is hard. HA! And yes, the bark of laughter should be added to the meme. It also occurred to me that maybe I should try my hand at comic books.
For the last two and a half years, I’ve actively been writing two novels. TWO. And in the entire time I was writing them I do not remember that phrase, “writing is hard” ever once escaping my lips. Not once. Why? Because now that I’ve finished said novels, I’m filled with so much glee, I have selective amnesia. It’s now easy for me to forget how freaking hard it was to get to this point. To combat this delusion, I’ve decided to try and remind myself. Not just for me or even for you invisible blog post reader, I’m doing this for the reason I do a lot of things: my kid.
Ms. Z wants to be a writer. She writes everyday. Some things she lets me see or openly shares. Most she keeps hidden like they’re the keys to Club 33 at Disneyland. I understand completely. I feel both those urges myself…often, and sometimes simultaneously. But the other night she flounced downstairs after a particularly long and obviously frustrating writing session and plopped on the staircase behind me to announce, “Mom, writing is hard.” I know I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help it. I laughed out loud.
So, Ms. Z and dear reader, here are just a few of the memes or quotes I’ve found in the last few years that have reminded me, inspired me, motivated me, validated me and drove me back to the realization that even though something is very, very hard that might mean it’s still worth doing. Enjoy!
Lily Java 