Photo by Andrew Morrell Photography

Loving this post by Anna Elliot on Writer Unboxed- “Lessons Learned from Wrangling with the Impossible Book“.

It’s a fabulous post. All of it. But this section particularly resonated with me-

I can do hard things. I read about this idea somewhere and decided awhile back that I was going to make it my personal mantra: I can do hard things. It’s so simple–and yet it’s just an invaluable mindset to be able to place yourself into when faced with a challenge. And let me tell you, I have seldom needed it more than when wrestling with this book! Every book reaches a point where it would be so much easier to give up on it, scrap the whole idea and give in to the siren call of a shiny new idea that promises that, No, really, I will be an easy book to write. Don’t do it! Don’t give up those characters of yours. They’re counting on you to tell their story. And you can do it–because you can do hard things.

Likewise, this is also invaluable when faced with that other inevitable aspect of book-wrangling: editing. Cutting. Killing your darlings. One of the most painful realizations you can come to as an author is that a piece of writing–a sentence, a scene, a whole series of chapters–is an absolutely brilliant piece of writing, something you’re just repulsively proud of . . . and yet it has no place in your story. It’s hard to be brave enough to scrap writing that you love. It’s hard even to scrap writing that you know deep down just isn’t working and face the terror of having to start afresh. But you can do hard things.

Isn’t that the most awesome writing mantra? Fiction writing is often tough, seemingly impossible tough. But if you love your characters, keep going. The only way out is through.

You can do hard things. You can do what you need to do to finish this story. And the next one. And the one after that. Anything in your life you really want.

No matter how hard it is.