I’ve written a couple of times before (here and here) that I often find writing intensely difficult. It’s a situation where I’m frozen by doubt, worry and self-criticism. Crippled by the inability to structure syntax correctly, get the phrases and sentences flowing or have the paragraphs follow on from one another in a linear narrative.
Unfortunately there’s no quick fix. Like anything it’s a matter of practice and of course reading often and widely.
Also, taking a long view I’m still in my writing infancy. And that’S the most pragmatic way to look at it; writing and becoming a writer is a journey. There will be challenges, highs and lows – but I’m up for the challenge.
I recently stumbled across a quote by the iconic Irish writer and novelist James Joyce.
Writing in the English language is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives.
And so it appears even he, surely one of the most storied and studied writers in the history of man, also struggled writing in the English language. What a huge comfort this has been!