Tag Archives: Book

What have you got to lose?

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“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

― John D. Rockefeller

Sometimes I wonder if pursuing a writing career is a pipe dream or a lost cause.  It’s seems to me I’ve been working hard at this for a very long time.  Anybody else ever feel this way?

I’ll bet there’s more than one person in any crowd who knows what I mean.  You work hard, write every day, watch for opportunities and then get nothing returned but rejections and sometimes, they don’t even bother to let you know they’re rejecting you. . . they simply ignore you.

It’s a hard life, and a constant struggle, but since I’m going to write whether I get published or not, I grues what “they” think doesn’t really matter.

I’ve often asked myself why I do it, keep writing that is, why would I put myself through so much for so little.  It’s because I have nothing to lose, and everything to say.  I believe there’s magic in some of those stories, and someday you may want to read them.  It doesn’t have to be today, but someday is good enough.

Oh, and that is what writers do; they write, whether you’re reading or not.

So jump on in here and tell me, what do you have to lose?

Focus

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“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.”

― Winston Churchill

Do you sometimes wonder what it will take to get the job done?  To finish the damn book?  To see your name in print?  To see the completion of the project you call “the book of my heart”?

There are so many things which distract us in life, keep us from achieving the things we desire.  What really prevents our sucess is ourselves.  That’s right.  We are our own worst enemy.

We dilly dally, procrastinate, make excuses and make commitments— which we are  oh so eager to forget —when it’s difficult to keep the promises we make to ourselves.

But really, it’s not difficult at all.  We simply need to do it.  Starting out small is the key to keeping those promises.  It’s important not to overestimate the durability of our focus.  We need to plan for accomplishing small goals consistently and over the long haul, not just today and tomorrow, but for a year, five years, or a lifetime.

This is how dreams turn into reality and talent builds a career.

Focus.

How are you building your career?

Using your gifts

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“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

― Albert Einstein

Just how much of our brain do you think we use every day? Some people would tell you they use it all, while others might say that it’s never enough. The real problem for most writers is the inability to turn off portions of our brains, even selectively.

For many, the ability to “turn on the auto pilot” is the appeal of a thing like National Novel Writing Month.

Can you accomplish more if you just put your head down, tuck your elbows to your sides, and keep typing?  I bet you can, and  Chris Baty believes that too.  In fact, the belief is one of the reasons NaNoWriMo survives today.

So tell me, did you win?

If yes, good for you!

If no, then don’t sweat it.  Lot’s of people drop out.  Every one who takes up the gauntlet discovers something about themselves, and sometimes the thing you discover is . . .are you ready for this?  You don’t really want to write a novel after all.

That’s Okay.  You don’t have to do it.  No one does.  Writing is a choice.  Many choose never to return to the keyboard in an attempt at fiction, but some of us learn different things.

Like, let’s say, you don’t have a plot.  There’s no problem during the first draft, that plot thingy is fixable.  Eventually you will need a plot, hopefully a trim, tight little plot that delivers a great story.

But at the beginning?  Nope, you don’t need it.  Just keep writing.

In fact, in case you missed it, that’s the secret to success at NaNoWriMo.

Just keep writing.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before and I will credit Nora Roberts with the saying, I’ve heard her say it often enough;  you cannot fix a blank page, but you can fix a bad one.

So really people, this is like getting the meaning of life, just keep writing.

Don’t make me resort to the story about the monkeys, the typewriters and the Bible.  Please, don’t.

And keep you minds and your eyes open, for this Holiday Season, my blogmates are threatening our readers with more short stories.  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Just member, I write horror stories, so what was Santa doing in the chimney, anyway?

Limitations

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“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

― George Bernard Shaw

Are we the victim or the master of our limitations?

As NANO draws to a close, I wonder if the month of November in retrospect will be viewed as a boon or a trial.  I know hundreds of thousands of us each year, succumb to the lure of the fantasy that we can win, we can finish the “sleeper” novel, the one that will put us on the Times list, the breakout novel of our lives—if we just finish the damn thing.
Isn’t that what NANO is really about?  Finishing the damn novel?

It’s true, writing is a struggle and a joy and our life’s dream, but if we tell the truth, most of us would rather ‘have written’ than aspire to be writers.

I do involve myself every year in the NANO frenzy.  I always go in with hopes high, expectations realistic, high energy, and a modicum of healthy skepticism.  I know I can write every day, or almost every day.  I do that in my real life.  In spite of keeping a full-time job and a family.  And my family is a keeper.

But sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder if I suffer from delusions of adequacy?

When does the day come when we accept the mediocrity of the first draft, the need for additional revision and the willingness to let go of the silly thing after the fourth or fifth or even the eleventh revision?  When is the novel done?  Is it when you know in your heart you simply can’t do any better than this?  Or is it when you’re just to exhausted to revise one more time?

Is the novel complete when you choose to abandon it?  Or is it done when you file it under the bed?  We all know if you do sell it, it’s not done, it will need more revision.

So is this all there is to the writing life?