Writing a novel is rife with potential for confusion, discomfort, humiliation, confronting your own shadow.
If you’ve been avoiding starting a novel you deeply want to write, that avoidance is actually a really smart move. In your resistance, you’re accurately sensing the very real emotional, mental, psychological (sometimes even physical) challenges ahead. Maybe you also recognize the violence that must be done to your shimmering novel idea in order to wrestle it into tangible form.
Your resistance is your mind working to protect you from what may lie in that unknown space of the blank page. It’s smart to not write your novel.
The problem, of course, is if you really do want to write it. You might be keeping yourself safe by not beginning, but you might also be missing the rewards on the other side of that discomfort and uncertainty.
The joy of creative flow. The fulfilment of a dream. A deep sense of purpose, alignment, and connection. A completed novel—your completed novel, populated with your characters and their fully realized journey.
HEIDI REIMER