I think part of the problem is that we think that writing is something that we do to occupy our minds, but it is something that makes us feel guilty if we don’t write every day. Not only that, but writing takes up a huge amount of our time and makes us feel a little bit of pressure to produce an “A” every time we sit down to write. We don’t have to be that person who always gets up in the morning to write.
The best way to get rid of that pressure is to do something that we feel is productive. Like in the video game industry, many of the games we play are full of grinding. We love them to death and we constantly want to make them better. The problem with this is that the grind can be so bad that it can take away from the joy of playing the game.
Writing is hard because there is no reward. You don’t get to sit down and work on something that you love all day. You don’t get to see what comes out of your keyboard. Instead, you just get to sit and stare at a blank screen and say, “I wonder what it would be like if…”. Which is why, to me, there is a lot of pressure to produce an A.
Making a game is not a job. It’s not something that is done, it’s something that you do. Making a game is about telling a story, and telling that story with a style. There are endless ways to tell these stories. You can use cinematic techniques or you can use dialogue or you can set a scene with your characters and just take it from there. You can do all of the above. But in the end, it’s about telling a story.
It’s also the reason I don’t like video games. In order to make a good game, you have to have a story, you have to know what’s going on. You have to make choices and you have to do stuff. It’s hard work and it’s hard to do well.
In writing you have to think about your characters, what they are thinking and feeling, and what is going through their head. You have to think about why they do what they do, how they feel about it, and what it is they are experiencing in the moment. The hardest part is that you have to not only write these things, but you have to make sure you are telling these stories with the right tone, voice, and pacing.
Writing is no different: I’ve said it many times, but writing is hard. But the thing is you can’t really do it in a day. That’s why we say you have to get better at it. There is no “one-shot” method. You have to practice every day, every hour, every minute, each time you sit down to write.
The reason writing is hard is because you cant make it easy for the reader. There is so much you can do to take this idea in your head and get it through your head. You have to give your reader the time of day they need so they can get it right.
I think the best way to think of writing is this: If your aim is to write something great, you can do it pretty easily, but if you want to write a good story, you have to work hard to put it together.