If you’re like me, you probably sometimes sit and think about how nice it would be to wake up, have a cup of coffee or tea while you gather your writerly (don’t bother getting the dictionary…I made the word up.  I think it has a nice ring to it though so I added it to my Grammarly dictionary) thoughts while looking out the window of your well and perfectly appointed author’s office.  You then open your laptop and begin to type your greatest masterpiece yet…the words flying effortlessly from your fingertips.  No time clocks.  No bosses.  No rush hour.  Just your peaceful office, your laptop, and you.  It’s a wonderful daydream in which to get lost but daydreams only get you so far.  You can’t daydream that masterpiece onto your computer screen.  You have to actually sit down and write it.  True, these types of daydreams keep us motivated but we tend to get lost in the end product and don’t quite get to the actual building of it.  An architect can show you a mock-up of your dream house with detailed floor plans and even a 3D model but until they lay the foundation, put up the walls, slap on a roof, etc…, you can’t live in that house.  It’s just an idea.  A concept.  The same is true with your writing.  Sure, a little daydreaming is a good motivator but it’s the writing that builds the reality about which you’re daydreaming.  Get started on your foundation and go from there.   

” Those that dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” ~ Edgar Allen Poe       

I am having 1 of THOSE days.  The kind where not a creative insight or idea is to be seen or heard coming from me.  I suppose it’s because I have my day job weighing on my mind so very heavily.  My brain is about 95% invested in the craziness of the day.  And it happens to all of us.  It happens to famous bestselling authors, teachers, salespeople, etc…, so I’m not going to let it get to me or make me feel like a loser or a fake.  Sometimes it will be work while other times it will be family issues/responsibilities or relationship problems or even because you spent last night out with your friends and you’re just tired.  We don’t need an excuse to have an off day creatively.  The only thing that we must remember is to not let that 1 off day become several days, then a week, then a month, etc….  Make a deal with yourself that you are going to sit down at your laptop or with a pen and notebook tomorrow and try.  A lot of this is just about showing up and making an effort.  Write, even if it’s crap.  You can fix crap but you can’t fix a blank page…well unless you put words on it.  1 off day does not mean that you’ve lost your creative edge or that you will never be creative again.  Don’t make up excuses to match your current frame of mind.  We, as writers looking to be published, have enough obstacles to overcome…don’t become 1 of them!  Even though I was sure that I had absolutely nothing of interest to write today, somehow, that nothing became something.  It’s not earth-shattering or even anything that you didn’t already know but it’s a reminder that we need to get out of our own way sometimes.  When we say that we can’t do this or that we’re basically setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy.  And then it becomes our excuse for not doing this or that.  It’s like asking a teenager why they did something and they give you the standard reply of because.  You’ve created a tautology that will shut your writing down…it’s true because it is.  I can’t do this because I can’t.  What?  No, it’s true because we’re making it true.  Don’t do that!!  We have enough reasons to not write…life, in general, is a good reason but we’ve written through heartache, joy, excitement, disappointment, love, hate, apathy, feast, famine, etc…, so don’t use I got nothin’ as an excuse to not write.  You can and have written thru every situation and emotion.  Don’t let a BS made up excuse be the reason you stop writing.  And, if you do have nothin’, fake it.  Keep writing until you have somethin’.

“Start writing, no matter what.  The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ~ Louis L’Amour          

Tired as in weary.  Tired as in fed up.  Tired as in, “I just want to give up.”  We all experience those feelings…more some days than others.  Maybe you’ve slaved over a novel and all you’ve received are rejection slips or, worse yet, silence.  Maybe you’ve been up for days trying to find the perfect words for the final poem in your book of poetry.  Maybe you’re at the point where it all seems like a gigantic waste of time and you’re ready to give up.  And, on top of all that, you’re tired.  You’re working a full-time job that’s ok but doesn’t feed your soul, have a significant other, maybe some kids (2 or 4 legged variety), extended family (maybe in poor health and in need of your assistance), a home (cooking, cleaning, lawn care, repairs, etc….), a social life, that pesky thing called sleep, and writing…if and when you can find the time.  I understand the pressure, the stress, the weariness, the worry, and the longing to have a life that does feed your soul.  I live that same life.  I understand it all.  And you have every right to feel all of those things but what you have to understand and come to terms with is you are the only 1, the only person that can change all of that.  Whether you write your book or not, the days will continue to pass, the job will slowly strangle your soul, the kids will grow up…basically, life will go on.  You have to ask yourself whether you’re okay with all of that happening with you no closer to your dream than you were when you 1st discovered it.  Are you?  Does writing feed your heart, soul, and mind?  Does it give you hope for a different/better future than you’re contemplating right now?  Is it your dream to be published?  Does writing make you happy when it’s not frustrating the hell out of you?  If you answered yes to those questions, then you need to get off of your ass and start writing.  You are a writer.  You have that dream.  You can see that future.  Your future.  Visualize it every single day, every time your resolve slips, as you fall asleep each night.  Hold on tight to it and never let it go because I can guarantee you that the dream will never let go of you.  You manifested it, now set it in motion and make it real. 

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ~ Stephen King  

Every day that I open WordPress, I sit for a while and think about what I’ll write, like most of us writers do when confronted with a blank page or screen.  As I’ve mentioned before, I am a pantser, so I don’t usually plan my writing before I actually sit down and begin to write.  I tend to give my writing its head and let it gallop off in whatever direction it chooses.  That’s how I wrote 99% of Rapture.  And, the parts where I didn’t do it, honestly, sound forced and false to me.  I suppose I am at the mercy of the Muses when I write and, sometimes, they’re real bitches!  They tease you with ideas but don’t give you the words so that you can put the ideas on paper.  Or they give you flashes and fragments of brilliance which raise your hopes, then desert you leaving you frustrated and damning your need and desire to write.  Other days, they allow your words to flow like honey.  That’s the problem with being a pantser…you have no real structure from which to begin.  I have tried just about every outlining, plotting, and structuring template there is out there.  And, I’m still a pantser.  Even in high school and college, I wrote my papers “backward.”  I would research, then write the actual paper but most of the instructors wanted to see a bibliography, notes, outline, and rough draft.  So, after writing the actual paper, I would then write the rough draft in pencil and erase and mark through words and sentences…making it look “rough.”  Then came the notes with the same marks and erasures followed by the outline.  I freakin’ hate outlines!  I’d spend more time creating that than everything else combined.  And I’d finish with the bibliography which I fleshed out a little since I actually only used 1 or 2 books of the required 4 or 5 for the meat of my paper but I’d pull relevant quotes from several other books that were used in the fleshing out portion.  Oh, and the very best part was that since I was a procrastinator, the paper was assigned at the beginning of the term and due, usually, at mid-term, so I’d start it about a week before the due date.  Oh, and I’d always get an A.  But I’m older now and I don’t know that my brain could still handle that kind of stress.  So, I guess I’m a natural pantser even though I really wish that I weren’t.  I had 1 English professor that understood me…Dr. Virginia Brumbach.  I loved that woman and took every class she offered.  She’s the professor that told me that my writing and use of punctuation were reminiscent of William Faulkner.  How could I not love an English professor that told me that?  She might have told me that as a way of admonishing me for my use of run-on sentences though but I’ll take it as a compliment.  As a writer, you have to take compliments in any form that you receive them even if they might be a little shady.  She told me that there was no wrong way to write as long as it works for you and it keeps you writing.  But I’ll probably still keep looking for that plotting technique that works for me even though I doubt that it’s out there.  The Snowflake method was promising so maybe I’ll check that out again.  The how of your writing isn’t as important as the actual writing.  As long as you’re putting words on that blank page, you’re doing it the right way!  Just keep on doing it.

“Writing is finally about one thing:  going into a room alone and doing it.  Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before.” ~ William Goldman   

I’m going to tell you something that you already know…someday isn’t guaranteed.  We, as writers, keep that day in our head as our finish line when we’re working on our passion piece of writing.  You can’t do that.  I’m about to sound like an inspirational poster here but all you actually have is right now.  I’ll be the 1st to stand up and say, “I am a procrastinator.”  Actually, the queen of procrastinators…bow down before me my loyal subjects!  I’ll be really honest…the second that I wrote the previous sentence, my ADHD mind starting wondering why the lamp beside my writing surface wasn’t working.  Sounds simple enough to check, fix and then get back to my blog.  Well, no it wasn’t simple.  My new little writing haven, as I call it, was formerly my craft room so I have jewelry making supplies and tools, card making supplies, tools, and equipment, quilling supplies, candle making supplies, bath bomb and salts making supplies, etc…, and to make room for my computer and writing stuff, I had to clear some space.  So I put a lot of it into 2 storage ottomans, 1 big and 1 small, and the rest went into storage containers, some of which are under the table that I have deemed my writing space.  And the outlet was behind all of that.  But, being ADHD and a mega-procrastinator, I didn’t stay completely on task.  I found some notebooks that I had to look thru, some cords leading to who knows what and other things that seemed extremely important to look at in that moment.  Then, I had to put it all back…except the notebooks because they could be interesting and a nice diversion for a procrastinator.  But now I’m back.  My point, before I went off on my mission, is that you can’t keep telling yourself that 1 day, someday you’ll finish your book or other writing projects.  You, we, have to do it now.  I started my journey to publication 10 years ago and I’m not published yet.  Yes, I had some good reasons mixed in with the bullshit reasons, but that’s honestly no excuse.  So even if you add a sentence at a time, keep writing, no matter what.  Use your cell phone or voice recorder to record ideas, dialogue, etc…, on your commute or in between classes or meetings.  Always carry a notebook of some sort so that you can jot down your thoughts at lunch or at your desk.  And keep that notebook beside your bed at night along with a pen in case you awaken from a dream that has given you some inspiration.  Basically, just try really really hard to make some progress each day.  You might be amazed at how much you can actually write using stray moments throughout the day.  You’ll never reach that someday otherwise. 

“Serious writers write, inspired or not.  Over time they discover that routine is a better friend than inspiration.” ~ Ralph Keyes

“The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.” ~ Ernest Hemingway   

Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that you truly are unique…as a person and as a writer.  No one can put your words on a blank page the same way that you do.  And even if you’re writing in a genre that has been exploited for years on end, your words are completely and totally unique so your story will be unique.  Don’t ever forget that.  That’s why you absolutely have to write your poem, novel, short story, etc….  I know you’ve heard the Gandhi quote, “be the change you want to see in the world.”  Well, it’s applicable in this case too, although in a slightly different way.  How many time have you stood in a bookstore or scrolled thru Amazon’s Kindle books and thought about how you wished that there was something to read besides the same old stories with only slightly different plots and characters?  Or read a book and thought that it was good but it would have been so much better if only the author had done this or that?  We’ve all done it.  We’re writers so we don’t just read a book, we pick it apart and perfect it in our minds.  It’s up to you to write the story your way.  And maybe 1 day someone will be reading your bestseller and picking it apart.  You owe it to the world to tell your story because it will be different from everyone else’s story.  You have to do it.  It’s all you’ve ever dreamed about.  So, write that book, the 1 that highlights your uniquity, and shine!  

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way that they have been told to.” ~ Alan Keightley

No matter how good your writing is there’s no guarantee that other people will like it.  Yes, that’s a little tough love.  1 person just isn’t into the genre.  Another doesn’t like your phrasing.  That 1 thinks it’s too high brow while this 1 thinks it’s too low brow.  And so on and so forth.  It’s called having opinions.  We’ve all picked up a bestseller that everyone is raving about and then put it down after a chapter or 2 because it just didn’t “grab” us.  No one really has to explain why they don’t like an author’s writing.  How many books did you have to read in lit classes where the instructor waxed poetic about how the author did this or that and used this device that caused the writing to be as near perfect as any could possibly be and, yet, you despised the book?  I guess that the takeaway is…write for yourself.  Sure, familiarize yourself with the market for your genre and read books on writing and improving your writing but you don’t have to do it totally by the numbers.  Your book isn’t a paint by numbers kit.  Be original.  Be daring.  Be shocking.  Change things up.  Just because the books in your genre have been written a certain since they 1st came out, does not…I repeat…does not mean that you have to do it that way.  This is your book, poem, short story, essay, etc….  Write it your way.  I can guarantee you that there are people out there will appreciate your take on the subject.  Develop your own style…hell, your own genre.  Shake it up!  Every few years there is a shift in what’s popular…be the person that causes the next shift!

“Stay faithful to the stories in your head.” ~ Paula Hawkins               

We’ve all been there…the notebook is open to a blank page, the pens or pencils are laid out, that infernal cursor is blinking on the blank computer screen, the blank index cards sit there in a stack, steam is rising off of a fresh cup of hot tea or coffee and we have no idea what to write.  Sometimes this happens when we are starting a new project but it could just as easily happen in the middle of a current project.  We can sit and worry that we’ve completely lost our once prolific creative ability or we can relax and just accept that we’re going to have off days.  If we’re in the middle of a project when the muse deserts us, we can proofread and edit what we had previously written.  Sometimes that will spark an idea; other times, you’re still left high and dry.  Muses can be a little bitchy at times so curse her and move on.  Walk away from the computer and/or notebook.  We’re just going to end up more frustrated if we sit there and try to force it to happen.  If you’re like every other writer, you have a lot of books about writing so find 1 that speaks to you right this second and start reading it.  Or write in your journal.  Start a blog.  Go for a run.  Sit in the garden and watch dragonflies.  Take a nap.  Do anything but sit there and try to force the writing to happen.  Close the laptop and the notebook and step away.  They will be there tomorrow when your writer’s brain is once again fully engaged and ready to write.  Being a “creator” is unique in that it is a job but it’s also a release.  But, because it’s a job, sometimes you need a little time off just like a teacher, accountant, office worker, etc….  Don’t sweat it.  The more you worry about it and push yourself, the more your brain will rebel against writing.  Just relax and know that you haven’t lost your creative ability.  You’re just taking some time off.  And that’s something that everyone needs.  Just don’t use it as an excuse to completely stop writing! 

“There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~ Ernest Hemingway