Michael T. Hare

Optimus Prime once said, “In any war, there are calms between storms. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come that we forsake this planet and its people.”

Yes, traveler, I am quoting Transformers at you.

Writing can sometimes feel like a never-ending battle. We bog ourselves down with pointless fears and anxieties—we think we’re nothing compared to the masters who came before. Our good ideas can sometimes turn against us like old allies, paragraphs can deteriorate until all that’s left is a blank page, and our love for writing can become endangered.

Maybe that’s you right now.

But let me give you hope. Reread the quote and put yourself in it. There may be calms between the storms (we might be on a roll), but what matters is that we never forsake our book or its people. We stick to it. We write it. We ‘embrace the suck,’ as Christopher Paolini once put it.

P.S. I rewrote the Optimus Prime quote for the sake of accuracy. I can’t tell whether it’s comedic or dramatic, hence why I saved it for last. I wouldn’t want to ruin my pep talk.

“In any book, there are calms between sessions. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our good ideas turn against us. But the day will never come that we forsake this manuscript and its characters.”

Yeah…. It’s comedic.