In school, especially college, I lived on pressure. I wouldn’t say I thrived on it, but I definitely succeeded or failed by the pressure that came the night before assignments were due. Working on an assignment a week ahead of time could only be described as a waste of time. If I managed to sit down and begin, and that’s a prodigious if, I would find my mind wandering like a leaf in a water gutter: I was going everywhere fast, but never back to the branch.
So here I am, an unspecified number of days, months, and years out of college, and the pressure has disappeared. Work never had that same taste. You go and do and are done. Trying to write during my off-time, I found that I kept my college habit: I did little work while waiting for the pressure to come and force me back into focus. Over time, I developed my own ways of creating pressure. I made excel sheets to keep track of my writing and progress, and compared months to months and years to years to see if I could outperform myself. This worked wonders. The data I compiled helped answer questions like: How many words per day, week, month, or year did I write? How long did I write per day?
Under this paradigm, I finished my first complete draft of a novel—an achievement that I still find extremely satisfying. But it wasn’t enough for me: my stories weren’t finished; I wasn’t published. So I hunted for more. I consumed YouTube videos for advice on writing, publishing, and storytelling. I read books on style, how to write, and vocabulary. Yet even then, battling myself didn’t sharpen my mind the way the pressure of college did.
So I set deadlines. I told myself to finish this book chapter by such and such day, or this draft by the end of November. And this worked. I finished the first draft of a second novel, and the second draft of my first novel, under this strategy. However, my mind still wandered more often than not. Only habit kept me going—but my habit wasn’t enough. The habit I had cultivated over the years was one of writing. Just write. After completing my second novel, I realized that I was missing something important: I didn’t have the habit of editing.
I found the task difficult. It couldn’t hold my attention, and I didn’t feel the pressure. By a lovely coincidence, I watched a YouTube video from Jenna Moreci (Writing with Jenna Moreci) around the same time as this internal conflict bloomed. In her video, “The Secret to being motivated to write (and finish) your book”, Jenna made an excellent point and provided the answer that I had been searching for: a way to create pressure (Number 8 on her list). She mentioned the posting of goals on social media. This sparked a thought: I’ve heard many writers talk about the pressure they feel toward their editor’s deadlines, but never made the connection that I could use social media and the internet in the same way.
So I decided to test it out.
Not only have I taken Jenna Moreci’s advice and taken up social media for my writing in order to share my goals, I have also tried to replicate the pressure of writing for an audience, which is something I’ve never felt before. It has been in my head of course. I’ve thought to myself, “Who is going to read this?” and “Would people like this?”. But I’ve never published a piece of work to a public forum. I’ve never experienced what it is like to have the public view my writing. To critique me. And, hopefully, look forward to the next piece of my writing.
My step is a simple one: I made a Wattpad account, and began posting a weekly series. Now, I don’t expect this to solve every issue that comes my way, nor do I expect to be Steven King. But I hope that I’m able to build a portfolio of writing that has been reviewed, rejected, and revised by the public in the hopes of sharpening my writing and increasing the pressure in my life. Already I am noticing writing taking up more of my time. For instance, I am now writing a blog post, which is something I’ve wished to do for years; here I am, all from that little flutter of pressure I feel when I look at my series and think “Hey, maybe someone will like this like I do, and maybe they will look forward to reading the next piece…”. That is all it takes for me to reach for my computer. For now, writing is my pastime, but I hope with continued work, and support, that it might become my full time.
Thank you for reading,
~K
P.S. You can find (and subscribe to!) Jenna Moreci’s YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_fcv9kBpDN4WWrfcbCrgw
P.P.S. You can find my Wattpad story, The House of Fates, here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/255903983-the-house-of-fates?utm_source=web&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=share_myworks&wp_uname=AuthorNamedK&wp_originator=VKmf39HCQprkSzl2L5%2F0nCD6wQkZqWTh45dMQnAjj5uD3WXyYck7lyVhpABlcCtSB%2FFJiIMKzdRgvyoT92rwNfnfB56oXBLp9MZOUj942HAXw%2B7aes%2F2zvkNsyyM%2FCSa
K 