As previously published on Medium.com Mar 12, 2024
Edited and republished Feb 12th, 2025

Dear Writer … who isn’t writing because you’re waiting,

What exactly are you are waiting for?
Or what is it that you are waiting on?
You haven’t written in days!
Weeks? Months?
*horror face emoji*
Your pen is as dry as your imagination
and your mind is as blank as the paper.
Yes, I’m slightly judging you!
Us.
I’m slightly judging us.
Remember that week long retreat in the mountains where you said you’d spend time writing and you instead came back with new fancy stationary and a Build-A-Bear named Booker?
Yeah, you gotta stop wasting time like that and actually … write.
Do you mind if I guess?
I think you don’t quite know why you’re a writer yet, is that it?
(You don’t have to answer that out loud.)
Because it’s a proven fact (I assume) that if you don’t know why you have to do a thing, you won’t do it.
Nobody washes clean clothes until they’re dirty.
Nobody buys more gas until they run out! (Or do they?)
And let’s face it, writers often answer “why do you write?” with
“Because I have too.”
So considering that we are obsessed with telling the story, anxious to put our voices into the world, the teachers and the students desperate to regurgitate the answers…
Maybe there is something to why you don’t do the thing you must do and must do the thing you won’t do.
Can I guess, again?
You want to be a FAMOUS writer.
Books on the front table at Barnes & Nobles (eww, go Indie please)
Interviews with Oprah (or whoever interviews authors these days. Podcasters? Tiktokers?)
You want panel discussions and book tours, a movie deal, an advance of 1 million dollars for your next book!
You want people to know your name & know your work
And to contemplate the inner workings of your mind over tea or wine in a bookclub.
You want to be invited and considered.
(I’m secretly hoping that there’s a fashionable-poets-table at the Met Gala. Call me, Anna!)
The issue with this, oh-writer-in-waiting, is that you’ve gotta WRITE to be a famous writer.
(I’m not petty, just keeping it a buck!)
The book deal comes after the book, the interview comes after they viewed the book.
My motto for you (us) is: Write it, they will come!
Wait, that’s not you tryna get famous? You’re more humble than that?
Okay, another guess.
You have a story to tell… one that will change the world!
It is so complex, so deep, so impressive that you have to take your time.
Headline reads: Writer-in-Waiting finally finishes first book… on their death bed! Now to edit…
Listen, here’s a list of cliche’s that I’ve reworded for effect:
The story you’re writing now is making room for your next great work!
If you don’t finish, you can’t get started!
Your best work is the work you haven’t written yet!
And D… all the above!
But can I stop to encourage you here, just in case you are option # 3
(1 was famous, 2 was taking too long, 3 is self deprecating)
… You… are… good… enough….
You’re an amazing writer and people can’t wait to read your work.
And because I’m also a pessimistic cynic at time ie: you don’t like gushy encouragement
Just…. go… get…. better….ugh….
If you struggle with your craft, go take a class or join a writer’s group
Or something…
But stop faithing-without-working.
So let’s revisit that question, oh-long-winded-one
Why aren’t you writing and what are you waiting for?
The perfect 72 degree day?
A playlist so epic you feel compelled to write poetry?
A trio of mice to bring you your writing slippers, Cinderella?
The kids to go to sleep?
Your spouse to fix the wobbly leg on your writing desk?
A college degree?
A college scholarship?
A notebook with the perfect amount of lines per page and 2 inch margins?
A pen that never smudges?
A co-sign from somebody, anybody!
Time, space, and opportunity!
I wish, writer-in-waiting, that those things could come for you
But facts be
You’ll forever be waiting if you wait any longer
You’ll forever be writing if you stop waiting!
Oh, by the way
Have you figured out why you’re a writer, yet?
No.
How about you start by writing about why that is.
Shall we?