Assumptions about writing start with people, often under the influence, asserting to authors that “you should write my book.”

If you’re a writer, I’m guessing you’ve heard that line as often as I have. It takes every ounce of self-control for me not to retort, “Write your own damn book.”

While that may seem like an overreaction, after 25 years of working as a writing coach and many more years authoring books and magazine articles, I know firsthand and secondhand how tough writing can be. The assumption that it’s easy and that all we writers do is sit around and let the words pour out irks me.

Of course, there are those days when the prose flows like a mountain stream in May. But there are also plenty of days when each paragraph seems to have dug in like a pup resisting a bath. Those of us who have written a lot, whether professionally or not, know that we don’t have to rely on inspiration in order to write.

“I only write when I’m inspired,” William Faulkner is supposed to have joked. “Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.” The quote is so on point that it’s been attributed to several other professional writers.

Unfortunately, sometimes determination and perseverance aren’t quite enough. While it’s difficult for a lot of us to ask for help (yes, I’m guilty as charged), sometimes bringing in a little help in the form of a writing coach can make all the difference.

Yup, needing to sweat it out alone is another in a fairly long line of assumptions about writing that needs to go by the wayside.