2. Develop your stamina – writing is an endurance sport. It's a marathon, not a sprint!Some people are lucky enough to be naturally self-disciplined. They are the kind of people who will make the time to sit down and write every single day, regardless of what else is going on in their life. Are you one of those people? Congratulations! If so, you have one of the key characteristics of a real writer, not a talker-writer.
For most of us it can be a struggle at times. On the good days, words pour onto the page in a tidal wave. Enjoy those days but don’t expect them. EVERYONE can write on those days. Writers who get to the end keep writing, even on the days when their brain has turned to jam and they feel like hurling the PC through the window and dancing on its shattered carcass.
A book I really recommend is Stephen King’s On Writing. He really describes the long road to hitting the big time. He wrote for years with modest success and kept his rejection slips on a spike. His attitude is: read a lot and write a lot. Anyone can have a great idea for a book. Only one in a thousand will turn it into something.
Writers don't just talk about writing. They don't say they would love to write but... They put down their book, switch off the TV, stay home instead of hitting the pub yet again, skip their aerobics class once a week and log the hell out of Facebook!
Lots of people say they want to write a book. I said it for years. Here's what I learned - I just didn't want it enough. We all have busy lives with thousands of distractions and interesting things we can do with our time. Writing involves sacrifice. When you want it badly enough you will make the time. It will be painful at times. Accept that.
Write, even when you don’t feel like it. It can help to set a time limit – "I will write for the next 15 mins flat out." Even if all you are writing is “This sucks!” over and over again you are writing. You are training yourself to sit at the keyboard and make words appear, instead of doing one of a hundred different things.
Writers write!
8 comments:
thanks for this inspiration Debbie!
This is a really helpful post - and a nudge that I do need some self control! Rather than setting daily limits, what I used to find work best was set weekly word counts: for example, having to hit 5k each week. The only problem was that I'd lose interest in what I was writing (as after a few weeks I only wrote over the weekend, then speed-wrote only on Sundays), and then I'd miss a week, and feel guilty, and not write any more. It's a slippery slope. :) I really need to get back into it though! Maybe tomorrow - a new week, new start...
Thanks ladies! We all know the self-discipline can be the trickiest bit. I used to do the wordcount thing but I did exactly what you did Sophie - set myself up for a fall! I try not to obsess about the wordcount now - if I can get myself to the computer and start writing I tend to stay and keep writing. If I think "I have to write 1000 words now" I suddenly remember that cupboard I've been meaning to clear... ;-)
D x
Such a great update. I talk to writers from time to time..who want to write. I would love to be in a writers group. When I read this..I thought of this one fellow I'd met who told me all about how he was going to write some sort of Stephen King Epic novel..so I asked a few months ..later..how the writing was going and he says, "It hurts my fingers when I sit down to do it.."
I've often heard that writing is a lot like kniting. Naturally, that person said I had a lot of holes in what I was knitting. But really, its the discipline on so many levels of writing.
There are lots of writers' groups around - check your local Arts Centre / Tech college / Uni. Or failing that see if any writers you know are willing to start a group? Preferably someone more experienced than you are so you feel like you are learning something! :-)
Hey Debbie! I love this post. Because it is exactly true. In fact I think I will talk about it in my blog and link to it - it says everything I want to say without saying it myself! That Steven King book is sort of my bible.
One thing you're very right about it wanting it. I thought about writing for years and how I wanted to be a writer yet failed to actually write anything. Now I'm wriitng. And it takes so much discipline which is something I lack. I went to a writer's conference so many years ago and the writer in residence told me I'd get published if I just sat down and wrote - that was the hard part.
That comment comparing writing to knitting made me laugh only because knitting gave me tennis elbow and so does writing! The best way to cause my arm and shoulder pain. Oh well!!! I'm going to send you an email.
Indeed.
I exercise my writing muscle everyday. Just like I used to tell my shooters (I used to teach marksmanship) "muscle memory goes a long way." There have been time when my brain is scattered and I think nothing will come out, but I get on my laptop and ALAS! Fiction happens ;-)
Great comments :-) As for the physical pains of writing - I'll be mentioning that in the next post... x
Post a Comment