The Most Significant Writing Challenge

Writing

Everyone faces significant writing challenges when they pen down their thoughts. A writing method that works for a writer does not mean that the other writer would find it easy or vice versa. In this article, the writing challenge refers to the problems and issues that a writer may encounter while crafting a well-written piece. 

Your write-up could be in any form — poetry, fiction, non-fiction, short story, or a journalistic report. To overcome these writing challenges, the writer has to push their boundaries continuously and employ a different strategy than usual. Test and experiment with new methods to see which are beneficial for them. 

This blog post highlights different writing challenges that make a writer struggle, self-doubt, and criticize their work. 

The first significant writing challenge is Ego

One of the most powerful writing challenges is ego. There are times when we are tricked into overemphasizing our skills and talent, or we become too modest in gauging our expertise. Due to our prior writing success, we overestimate the abilities required for a new project. Remember that every new story requires you to have a fresh perspective that will ensure your writing success. 

Once you realize your ego is the hurdle between you and the writing, you can overcome it. It’s alright to develop your ego, but when it sabotages your creativity, you need to keep a cap on it immediately. Your writing ego is your internal demon that needs to be contained. A lot of writers have difficulty dealing with ego matters, and it makes them procrastinate, leaving their story half-complete. Cut yourself some slack and get the strength you need to finish your new project, but never let your ego ruin your project. 

Writing challenge No.2: Getting the story started

For many writers, beginning the story and establishing the readers’ interest in the first few pages is a significant writing challenge. Zadie Smith, the award-winning writer and the best-seller, took two years to write the first 20 pages of her book “On beauty.”In contrast, she completed the rest of her book in 5 months. Regardless of whether or not you are the best-seller or a great storyteller, you may get stuck with the effective opening of your story at times. The self-burden of writing a powerful and to write a moving story always takes on a toll on the writers. For them, it’s a significant writing challenge. Sticking to their schedule and having clear-sightedness of their goals can help them finish writing their projects. 

Writing challenge No.3: Research part.

The uphill part of writing is the research. Many writers dread researching for the book, and even if they do research, they may get overboard with the ideas. It is a significant writing challenge for the writers to stay on track for extensive periods. Writers have a habit of exploring new emotions. They seek to understand a place to write the perfect description. They travel around to conduct their research about people’s behavior, attitude, and personality. They write about life, but continuously doing all the research may detract them from their writing goals, leaving their story to hang in the middle of nowhere.

Writing Challenge No. 4: Creating the first draft.

Writing is a conscious habit that takes time to develop. If you are not practicing writing daily, then you’ll have more significant writing challenge. You must develop a solid routine in which you dedicate some of your time to a focused first draft. This habit will assist you in creating a flow in your writing. Likewise, you’ll achieve your writing goals quicker than you anticipated. Often, writers are worried that their first draft is worthless and ugly and needs to be thrown away, deleted, or burned. In times like these, it helps in reminding you that your initial write-up is nothing but a first draft. There is no need to rush and judge your writing based on what you wrote in it.  

Writing Challenge No. 5: The Confidence

Another significant writing challenge is confidence. The lack of self-esteem and enthusiasm makes the writer feel inadequate, small, and of little worth, inciting emotions of being a fraudulent person. These feelings can also create technical writing issues, such as ineffective communication, excessive use of filler words, and lack of concrete vocabulary. If you are one of those struggling to gain the confidence your work deserves, then it is the right time to teach yourself: writing is subjective. No matter how great and creative you write, there will be someone to criticize your work. Now, this entirely depends on you how you want to take things forward. Giving yourself time and space and embracing the critics’ voice will help you take your writing goals to the next level.

Writing Challenge No. 6: Writing Itself: 

Writers struggle when it comes to writing. For some, it’s a horror tale that writers discuss when they meet. At times when a writer sits down to write, they may feel like a layman incapable of producing one effective sentence. Sharing their thoughts and picturizing their imaginations so that the reader can relate to it is difficult as well. Writing fears have a crippling effect on the mind of the writers. From feeling a literary genius to pathetic and fraud in a moment are the writers’ constant highs and lows. As the saying goes, a writer is a person who faces the most difficulty when writing. To overcome this writing challenge, you can create your personal space to avoid all sorts of distractions and focus solely on writing. No matter how ugly your first draft is, it will always give you the strength to continue writing. 

Writing Challenge No. 7: Handling the pressure.

Writing can be stressful. Yes, writing is a beautiful activity that takes you to places and helps you learn about things you haven’t heard of, let you explore the world which is untouched before, makes you wonder on the lands where no one ever set their foot. But, apart from these wonderful things, writing can make you go crazy. Writers fistfight with themselves to handle the pressure of meeting the expectation, following the deadline, or providing the best work. If you are one of those writers who are struggling and brawling with the stress of writing, then tell yourself: I do what I do because I like doing it. Forget the originality, forget the client, and forget the money and write to save yourself. Control the working pressure before it starts to take over your creative life. This may be a significant writing challenge, but you can overcome it. 

Writing Challenge No. 8: Lack of energy.

Your significant writing challenge could be the fatigue of a tiresome schedule. Many writers do a full-time job while having a busy life of their own. They also have kids and family to take care of. Do you fall into this category? Are you having a hard time focusing on writing? Then don’t burn yourself! It’s alright to feel heavy or tired. Focusing on the things that you can do will help you become more productive. Blaming yourself for lacking the energy can cause you some mental trouble, leading to an internal tug of war of emotions. This internal friction can be upsetting, especially when it tries to create unhealthy thought patterns.

Writing Challenge No. 9: Perfectionism

Writing becomes the most challenging when you are the perfectionist type. It makes your emotions go overflow or make you harsh with your creativity. Likewise, you will never be able to finish what you started. Perfectionism can make you downright lazy and ineffective to the point of killing your dreams. 

Please take it as the deadly sin of the writing challenge. When I started writing, I used to judge every word I wrote. I cursed the thought process and did the editing when I felt like the sentence did not make any sense. The constant battle between writing and rewriting pushed me into a dilemma – my ability to think and reflect on new ideas was diminishing. My obsession with my writing made me produce less and less, to the point I thought of giving up. The idea of not being perfect enough was hurting the flow of my communication. As a result of this self-harshness, I lost my voice, ability to write clearly; even I couldn’t rephrase or even edit my sentences. All this makes me say is, you don’t have to write perfectly. Just write anything that is good enough, clear, and intelligible. 

Writing Challenge No. 10: Time Management

For many writers, the most significant writing challenge is Time Management. They spend hours and hours building their characters, researching their place descriptions, creating an imaginative world through words and phrases, and planning the whole book. Squeezing their schedule to make some time for writing is bewildering. Therefore, planning ahead of time before beginning the novel or the story works effectively. This way, your creativity flow runs smooth as well. There is no perfect formula that can help writers manage time. However, keeping track of time in each writing process enables you to formulate your book at the appropriate moment. Likewise, it would be best if you avoid distractions that cause trouble and eat up your time.

Main Attributes and Elaborate Information

Theme	Key Challenges	Creative Perspective
Psychological Barriers	Ego, Confidence, Fear of Imperfection	Exploring the inner conflicts and emotional hurdles writers face.
Initiation Hurdles	Starting the Story, First Draft Creation	Addressing the struggles in beginning and shaping the initial narrative.
Consistency and Flow	Time Management, Maintaining Energy	Focusing on the challenges of sustaining momentum and balancing life with writing.
Research and Authenticity	Extensive Research, Creating Authentic Worlds	Dealing with the complexities of accurate and meaningful research.
Self-Reflection and Growth	Handling Pressure, Overcoming Self-Doubt	Understanding the process of self-growth and resilience in writing.
Technical Aspects	Editing, Effective Communication	Highlighting the technical skills required for polished and effective writing.
Creative Process	Idea Development, Perfectionism	Emphasizing the creative journey and the balance between perfection and productivity.

Writing Challenge No. 11: Editing.

Letting go of your editing thirst while poring words on the page is a significant writing challenge. The desire to stop frequently to go back to the earlier phrase for deleting words, or removing phrases, breaks your creativity flow, slows you down, and makes your mind exhausted. Your writing should be flawless and devoid of grammar and syntax errors, but your connection should not be broken. Whether you are writing a lengthy novel or a short story, editing should always be done when you finish writing your first draft. Get started, and see it through; eventually, you’ll have yourself reading your own piece.