SquarePeg Books

Why Writing is Like a Relationship

Eccentricities. A polite way of saying “crazy:”

Everyone is crazy on some level. The trick is whether or not you can live with your partner’s idea of acceptable crazy.

Every writer says it at one time or another about just about almost every project:

“This manuscript is driving me crazy!”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

In the case of writing, perhaps it’s because the words won’t come. Or they do but what comes out violates the plot. You made plans to go left, but now everything jaunts to the right. Perhaps your manuscript is fighting with you such that the only way you can deal with it is to write from the middle. A tiny detail turns out to be a huge deal.

Like a spouse who irons their socks or insists upon actually folding thong undies, it’s the little things that can grate on your nerves the most.

The question becomes: Can you live with it? Are you willing to try?

If your manuscript drives you into a psychotic rage every time you work on it, I would say that level of crazy is a wee bit much and perhaps you should consider a little time and space apart for a while.

But if it’s just a little thing, like a daily peanut butter and pickle sandwich, is it worth getting all worked up over? Can you accept the crazy? Maybe look at it a different way?

Every manuscript, just like every relationship, has its eccentricities.

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