What are you upset about? $0/hr is a generous salary.

Oh! I just thought of something – disconnecting my computer from WiFi! I’m going to go try that as soon as I get a chance ☺️

Oh, old school paper… never thought of that! I’ll have to try doing something I can do to help get the thoughts out. Hmm…

I write a blog on Medium.

You need to have a ton of content to make any amount of money. After writing 200 articles, I started making a consistent $100/month. Not quitting my day job any time soon, but I have a lot of downtime at work, so it’s a productive way to pass the time.

Oh, and the $100/month is pretty consistent. I took a month off from writing, and they still sent me money for the read time on my old articles. The pay is low… but my boss wouldn’t send me a small stipend if I decided not to show up for a month. So, I really can’t complain.

There was a quote from Dan Brown (sorry, couldn’t find it after a few minutes of googling) where he explains how to write characters smarter than yourself. Brown would spend days – sometimes even weeks – coming up with an explanation for how his characters would realize something in a matter of minutes.

Writing brilliant characters is hard. But that’s part of what makes good writing so worth reading.

Idiots are way too easy to write, but it takes a genius to write a genius. That’s why we have so many idiots in books and TV…

That’s a great perspective, and it’s liberating to remember, first drafts are rarely perfect.

I have a novel that I’ve been setting aside for years because it has some major flaws I don’t know how to fix. Someday I’ll figure it out!

I’ve tried many different things when this feeling hits… I wish I could recommend something that works, but anything I try just makes it worse.

I keep on starting novels. I get what I think is an amazing premise, but a few chapters in the story is so dull I feel as if it’s irredeemable.

One novel I powered through all 46 chapters. I spent a year writing and rewriting, then put it away for a month. Came back and realized it was crap.

I can only conclude I don’t have the skills to write the stories I want to read. I just need to keep practicing, I guess.

I keep on telling myself that a concert pianist will spend hours upon hours doing scales and drills – and that’s the way I view the hundreds (thousands?) of pages I’ve thrown away. It helps a little.

I’ll keep writing, but it’s just hard to know that my current skill level is so far below where I want to be.

Thanks, this is the answer I was looking for. I’m trying to save money because we don’t have a lot. My wife is on board with saving, but she hasn’t done the math to see where most of our money is going.

I might need to back off a bit. I like to save, but this might be a bit much.