No rest for the dedicated

It's the home stretch, now.  Can I persevere?  Can I hold course, and keep the boat steady?  I hope so, because I really don't want to write all summer long if I can avoid it.  Revising - that's fine, but creating and molding?  No, I'd rather not "work" for two months straight if I can help it.

But here's the rub.  The whole point of being dedicated and persevering, is to do so even when you'd rather be, say, sleeping in, or cutting the grass, or sitting in the lawn chair drinking a Fuzzy Navel.


No matter what you want to succeed in, be it sports, or academics, or music, or writing, there comes a time when one needs to ask oneself "am I really willing to put in the 10,000 hours to be great?"

Yes.  (Hopefully)
 

Conspiracy Against Aspiring Authors

I've figured it out!  There is a definite plot out there in Proseland to quell the up and coming writer.  It's undeniable.  It's sneaky.  It's surprisingly subtle.  It's ridiculous and confounding.  

I have been seriously writing for the last three years, and over that span I have searched out strategies and techniques for writing well.  Through countless numbers of author interviews, blogs, and websites, there have been infinite tips given out to those who aspire, from those who have acquired.

But it was only recently that I found a disturbing trend inherent to the advice shared by said authors.  The #1 best piece of advice given to us aspiring writers was, is, and always will be:  READ...

Read?


But, how am I supposed to write while I read?  So, to be able to write and complete manuscripts, I need to read more?  But, if I stop reading in order to continue writing, my writing will suffer, thus requiring me to read some more, thus cutting back on my writing, thus...

Sounds like a 'chicken or egg' tip to me.

You see, after having read sooo many articles and-  Oh no.  It can't be.  They got to me.  I don't know how, but they got to me.  All those magazine articles... all those blogs... all those books on how to write...  THEY GOT ME READING!  All that time.  All those wasted hours.  I could have finished my first manuscript by now!  CURSE YOU SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS!

Sorry, but I've got to stop writing now so I can go and write.

To write, or not to write

I love to write stories.  Generally, I think that most authors or would be authors like writing.  But, c'mon, there are those stretches when even the most seasoned writer can't stand looking at their laptop screen for one more minute.  Sometimes you're so utterly and totally exhausted from either the kids, or the job, or whatever, that the thought of any kind of creativity springing forth from your cranium feels more like an alien pod finally hatching through your sternum.  

But this is the job, right?  This is what separates the chaff from the wheat - where the cream rises to the top, and all those other cliches.  Any hack-wanna be-no name-loser can write when things are great and there's a seemingly endless spring of ideas flowing from within.  It's the real troopers, the ones that get down and dirty in the wee hours of the night, the ones that steal a few minutes here and there, getting their ideas down before they disappear like a silent assassin, that are the great ones.  

So tough it through, dear would be writer.  Don't give in to procrastination and temptation.  Don't talk about writing, don't think about writing, don't fear writing, just do it

The fakes and the hacks and the wanna be and the posers all talk about writing.  Real writers just write.

Oops...

Oh yeah, I forgot I still had this thing.  

Well, it's been almost a year since my last post.  Now, if I can just follow my Life Quote, I see no reason why I can't post once a week.

Hello?  HELLO?  Anybody?  Is this mic on?  Hello?

...

Happy Easter.