Writing invariably is a passion for a lot of people that I work with. And they just, for whatever reason, have not been able to sort of devote themselves to it until now. And that's usually when they come to me and I plug into their process.

On Good Story Learning, our membership for writers of all levels, I'm gonna give one more tip for this kind of setting yourself up for success, greasing the wheels, giving yourself permission to write. I hope you can join us over there.

transcript for permission to write

Hello. My name is Mary Kole with the Good Story Company. And today we are talking about permission to write. And this is something that I wish all writers...so it's a lot easier to say than to do and I completely recognize that. But a lot of people that I work with in my editorial practice, they for whatever reason have kept from writing for a large swaths of their lives. And then when they come to me, I'm a paid freelance editor, they are, you know, "finally" in this phase of their life where they have either time or money or both to devote to their writing craft. Writing invariably is a passion for a lot of people that I work with. And they just, for whatever reason, have not been able to sort of devote themselves to it until now. And that's usually when they come to me and I plug into their process.

I see a lot of pain in that process and hearing about the lives that my writers have led outside of writing. It's really tough for me to grapple with this idea of just the waste of time that a lot of my writers have dealt with on their writing journey when they were focusing on other things which I completely understand. You know, life happens. We need to pay a mortgage, we need to pay medical bills, we need to put kids through school. There are sacrifices that we all make. That being said, the writers that I see that tend to be happier are those that have devoted at least something to their writing practices over the years so that when they do get that break that they're kind of hoping for, whether it's in terms of time or having a little bit more money to start going to conferences or buy resources, it's always kind of a little bittersweet, if they haven't had a little bit of a writing practice underneath them to get them to that place.

I see a lot of regrets, a lot of people who have said, you know, "I could have made 15 minutes a day to write, but I just didn't. I could have gotten up a little earlier. I could have gone to bed a little later. I don't have that habit now that I have this time, or this bandwidth, or whatever to really get into a writing practice." And so for those of you out there who are struggling to write, who love writing but don't know if you can pull it off, who don't think that it's a practical thing, but who seem very passionate about it, and you wouldn't be here watching this video if you didn't feel that way, I would love to see you make a move, a move, a single move in the direction of writing because if that time does come when that pressure is off of you and you can write or you feel better about writing or you feel less frivolous writing, I don't want you to have the same regrets that I hear from my clients constantly, which is, "I wish I had better habits. I wish I was a little bit more progressed in my writing. I wish I had done a little bit more studying or a little bit more reading."

So one thing that anyone can do I think... And I have 3 kids and a business with 14 employees. I have a lot on my plate. I have a lot of responsibilities. I feel very responsible all day every day for other people. That being said, I always myself try to either make time for my own writing, time for reading, time for bettering myself, whether that's watching a video about something that I feel interested in, taking a class, attending a conference. Virtual conferences have really broken down barriers for a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise have been able to travel to a conference. So there are endless opportunities to sort of enrich yourself even if you're not actually writing. Now, over at Good Story Learning I'm going to give one more tip for this kind of setting yourself up for success, greasing the wheels, giving yourself permission to write. I hope you can join us over there.

But one takeaway is just there is always something that you could be doing, even if it's not writing. And I'll talk a little bit more over there about what to do when it does come to the writing. But there's always something that you can be doing that you can give yourself permission to do that you can find a little time to do. I'm not saying "should" to make you feel bad or to make you feel obligated or to put another thing on your plate. But from my experience, I do see a lot of people regret that they haven't sort of at least made little inroads, whether that's actual writing, reading, self-enrichment. So in case you wanted a little kick, a little permission, a little inspiration there, take yourself seriously. Take your writing seriously. Take your passion for writing seriously. It is a rare thing in life to find the thing that makes you come live. And if writing isn't for you, you need to honor that and to make little moves so that when it's time for you to make your big move, you have that foundation underneath you. This is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. I hope you join me over at Good Story Learning to continue this conversation and here's to a good story.

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