Just Do It

One thing I've discovered since becoming a published author is that I look for any excuse NOT to write. I sit down with good intentions, then the buzzer on the clothes dryer goes off and I take half an hour to go do laundry. I notice a hangnail and search for my emory board so I can file it off and while I'm at it I get out the buffer and polish. I get up for more coffee and notice that the dishwasher has finished its cycle....

Often I'm actually looking for distractions. Why is it? I wonder. I like to write...once I'm involved in the process. But thinking of doing it--that's what gets to me. I look at the whole enormous picture, creating a 300+ book with interweaving themes, astounding characterization, mind-numbing plots and I get completely daunted. How could I ever accomplish something like writing a book? Even after all the books I've written and edited, this thought persists.

I'll tell you how. One sentence at a time. And if your writing is awful on the first draft, which it almost always is, you can make it better on the second, third and fourth drafts.

The point is do it!

One thing I've discovered since starting is that I'm motivated by a couple of things. 1. Money--when there are bills to pay I get down to business much faster! 2. Hiring a babysitter--even if I'm not paying the babysitter, knowing that someone else is investing time in helping me get my books written moves me to write. 3. Leaving the house helps me a lot. The distractions of housework and childcare are gone. My public library is a great place to write!

Hang in there. Boy, it looks like my coffee cup is empty!
Traci

Jim Denney on Hanging in There

I read the following advice from fellow novelist Jim Denney on one of the authors' groups I'm a member of and thought you'd appreciate it. It's straightforward and dead on.

Traci

If you want to be a published writer, you must have a deliberate PLAN for getting published, and you must stay FOCUSED on that plan. You must persevere through all sorts of obstacles, including rejection, self-doubt, and the distractions that eat up your time.


Write every day, and write with the single-minded intention of getting your work published. Don't treat writing as a hobby; pursue it as a calling or a cause. No matter how busy you are, build a daily discipline of writing AT LEAST an hour a day with the express intention of selling what you write.


Every time you write with the intention of being published, you force yourself to think like an editor or a reader. You learn something about your craft you could never learn any other way.


Persistent, daily effort produces the habits and discipline of a writer. These essential habits and disciplines are:


1. Write every day.


2. Persevere through distractions and obstacles.


3. Write quickly and with emotional intensity.

(No obsessive-compulsive perfectionism in the first draft!)


4. Set ambitious but achievable goals.


5. FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS on your goals!


6. Finish everything you start.


7. Submit everything you finish.


8. Believe you can do it.

(When self-doubt shows up, ignore it and keep writing.)


JIM DENNEY, author of the Timebenders series

(including BATTLE BEFORE TIME and LOST IN CYDONIA)