Making Pasteles

There's a traditional Puerto Rican dish that outgrew its humble beginnings to earn the status of culinary legend.  Pasteles, a tasty compilation of yuca, plantains, and various other ingredients, often occupy a place of honor at the tables of millions of Americans.several times a year.  If you've ever had one (or more!), or prepared them, then you know that not only are they delicious, they're also quite labor intensive. In fact, they take so much work to produce that they're usually relegated to the role of "holiday" food. Writing can also be labor intensive, but unlike the aforementioned (and delicious!) pasteles, you want your writing to be the opposite of holiday fare.  Just realize that if you want to produce writing that is enjoyed by your readers (delicious!), it will take more than just the casual rattling of those figurative pots and pans, you have to make pasteles...

Jane Trombley, a well-known travel writer, gives you 5 reasons why writing is so labor intensive:

 1. Writing requires focus
It sounds simple, right? But here’s the first catch: topics don’t fall from trees. You have to think them up. And think them over. It’s one thing to say, “here’s a topic”….and quite another to say, “Here’s what I have to say about this topic that is interesting, fresh, and authentic.”
Writing is hard.

2. Writing requires practice
The pros, the charlatans hawking writing e-courses, they all say you’ve got to write practice, a lot. And post frequently, here on Medium or a platform of choice. Practice your craft, they all advise.
The first week or so, that’s easy. The second week, not so much. By the third week the only thing that’s easy is to say, “not today”.
Writing is hard.

3. Writing requires diligence.
If you’re serious about writing you have to be all in. Or don’t bother. It’s too hard to be half-assed about it.
That’s where diligence comes in.
Diligence is not quite like focus, not quite like practice. Even worse, diligence is like commitment.
It’s about being dedicated. You’ve got to do it every day. You’ve got to be committed to getting better, to wrestling this tiger to the ground. It’s hard, the diligence thing.
Writing is hard.

4. Writing requires courage
Writing requires exposing your most vulnerable and insecure self…and that my friends, takes courage.
Taking up the mental exercise of focus, gingerly attempting to practice with diligence until the practice is a practice, you’ve revealed something essential about yourself.
You’ve revealed you have the courage to step outside of your comfort zone.
Writing, whether as a rookie or a veteran, requires the courage to be emotionally susceptible. Writing the courage to put your own insecurity — that uncertainty and anxiety that comes with the new and unfamiliar — aside in the service of the endeavor.
Writing is hard.

5. Writing requires humility
There are days when you’re just humming along. “Oh, I’ve got this,” as the focus is crystal clear, the muse is bouncing on your shoulder spewing garlands of poetic prose. The sense of accomplishment may be a bit premature or it may be valid, but it is probably short lived.
Writing not only requires humility, it demands humility.
To be good at writing is to take your ego out of the story, or at out of least the headline and certainly out of the lead. And that’s hard because at the same time, as confidence grows, the ego is encouraged as well.
There is a fine line between your creativity, the fruit of your ideas, your communications skills and your self-importance. It’s not about you. You, as the writer, are the vessel, probably not the source. Your gift is one of expression. Ideas themselves, most good ones at least, are also timeless.
Writing is damn hard.

So, now we're sure that writing is hard.  Does that mean you should give up?  Find something easier to do?  No, not at all.  It just means that you square your shoulders, hunker down, and get the job done!  As Stan Lee would say... "Excelsior!"