Whenever I push through a big writing marathon, 10 or more pages in a day, I always have to have a few down days afterwards. I keep a running Excel spreadsheet to track my progress on my different writing projects: How many pages did I write today, this week, this month? A pattern emerges: I’ll write 10 pages, then three days of four or five pages a piece, or perhaps even one or two.

When you’re in the midst of something like Seventy Days of Sweat, it’s easy to look at these low-output days as “failures.” Why haven’t you written more? You were able to do ten pages yesterday with no problem at all. What happened?

But every page–every word– is forward motion. Maybe you only had one page, but you unraveled a knotty plot issue. Maybe you needed to refill the well. Maybe you needed to sleep more than four hours a night.

We’re in the second month of Sven now. Have you fallen off the wagon? Have you never gotten on? Are you worried as you see those days pass by while your numbers haven’t budged an inch? It’s okay! It’s not too late! Write now, today! We all have days, or weeks, or even months, where the well is empty. Where we have no words.

Take a deep breath. Smell that fresh breeze, filled with potential? It’s the second wind.

Write.

Well, the challenge has been running for a month now. How would you assess your first four weeks?

A stunning success? Or disappointing? Are you doing better than at this stage during the last round? Or worse?

Share your sense of achievement with the rest of us… or confess your sins!

[Only kidding… I know life gets in the way sometimes.]

‘I don’t believe in writers’ block. Plumbers don’t get plumbers’ block. Why should writing be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working.’

Philip Pullman

NOTE: Sven is moving servers over the weekend. It’s possible any comments you make will be lost, but things will be back to normal for Wednesday’s check-in.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us

Albert Schweitzer

This writing gig is long and lonely and none of us makes it without the support of those around us. It’s easy to feel alone when we’re down. When you’re trying to wring out twenty words and you’re so tired you want to fall over. You just got the fourth rejection in a row. Whatever.

But we’re each one of us standing on steps someone before us made and I think a key to getting through the rough times is celebrating the good ones by recognizing those in our lives who’ve helped us achieve.

I’m a very blessed person. I am. I have so much to be thankful for and while I get cranky over stupid stuff, it’s never far from my mind just who much I have in my life to celebrate.

An example: Wednesday the UPS truck pulled up to my door and my totally handsome UPS delivery guy brought six boxes to my doorstep. Two of those boxes contained postcards I recently had made for the Vegas release and also for Undercover. Another one contained new business cards - all this designed for me by Frauke who is wonderful and fabulous.

Two more contained my author copies of What Happens in Vegas which I carefully opened and then stood there, just staring at the books within. They’re a good weight. I love the cover very much. I flipped through, loving the little scene break icons (nifty little vegas styled card icons) and then i read my acknowledgements and I started to cry.

This book sold at a time when I was really low. I was really beginning to wonder if I’d ever break into New York and it got me through in a way I can’t even think about right now without crying. I’m not used to not being confident about my work. I was raised to believe if you worked your hardest at something you’d succeed. The publishing industry doesn’t always work that way. It certainly takes hard work, but it’s not enough. Waiting is really hard and it can kill your confidence.

So when I picked it up and held it, I did so knowing that the sweet feeling belonged to more than just me. It belongs to my husband. Ray. He’s my best friend and my number one fan. He has supported my work without fail. It belongs to my agent and friend Laura Bradford who has been there for me, flogging the hell out of my books to editors for going on two years now. When she called me to tell me about my Berkley deal she didn’t miss a beat when I started to cry. She’s awesome and I love her. It belongs to my parents who raised me to know everything is possible (and my mom who harasses people in bookstores to buy my books!). It belongs to my readers who have supported me continuously across publishers - Renee and Tracy who’ve beta read for me countless times. It goes to a lot of people because none of us does this alone. Ann Leveille at Ellora’s Cave and Angie James at Samhain who’ve been such fabulous editors they’ve both helped me become a better writer with each book. Megan Hart and Anya Bast who’ve been my homegirls for a number of years now who have read my stuff and critted it and who have just been the kinds of people I can trust to never blow sunshine up my skirt.

Anyway, I’m being sort of schmoopy but I never, ever want to be that person. You know the one who tells everyone she’s the master of her genre or the best mother in the world or whatever. Because I’m not here solely on my own merits. I’m here because of the support and efforts of those people around me.

Our dreams are, in part, the dreams of those who love us too. Gratitude will always serve you well in this world and it’ll get you through the dark times as well as chocolate.

“Time is a created thing. To say you don’t have time is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu

Sometimes I forget this, but you know, it’s SO true. Even if I’m away from the computer all day, I could write on the little notepad I carry, while waiting for my lunch order. Or I could dictate into the little voice recorder I keep in my purse. If I don’t do these things, I generally use the excuse, “I didn’t have time to write today.” But really, I did. I just didn’t make a big enough effort to make it.

I swear, I’m going to print out this quote and glue it to my forehead. Okay, maybe not my forehead, but someplace prominent. Like my husband’s forehead.

Okay, off to make some time!

It’s Wednesday. You know what that means.

How is everyone doing? Tell Sven all about your writing - the good, the bad and the unexpected.

If you’ve ever tried to write much more than a grocery list (or even that) then you know sometimes those distractions push in on you and threaten your sanity and your word count.

I’ve had one of those weeks, and I’m so ready for it to be over. Bad thing is, it’s Spring Break. The kids want to do stuff, and not just get sent off to their sitter. Last night, I made myself stay up until I got 2k done, and if need be, I’ll do the same today. Tomorrow. Every night until they go back to school.

A week full of distractions, the Easter holiday, edits that had me banging my head, trying to get all my stuff together for RT (eeek! It’s like three weeks away…), all of it is pushing in and crowding out the story, but I think I need to let Sven step in and kick my butt at this point.

Because I can’t start the NEXT story until this one is done…

Hope you all are having better luck ignoring your distractions than I am!

Shi
http://shilohwalker.com

“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.”

It’s a beautiful, sunny morning where Sven is. The kids are out looking for Easter eggs, and Sven started off the day with two shots of wheatgrass, a pot of coffee, and a leisurely, 18-mile run.

How’s the writing going? Check in here.

And some writing days are about cutting words instead of adding them…

Part of the challenge here is to keep everyone focused on writing and meeting writing goals. I got a reminder this week that sometimes the words need to be down paper before you can figure out if you’ve written your book/manuscript correctly. See, my editor called and asked me to re-send a copy of my November release, HOT AS HELL (Brava), via email so it could go to the copyeditor. Rather than just hit send, I read through my precious one more time. After all, I’d written a single title and novella since I turned this one in.

[Can you see where this is going?]

In reading, I discovered I didn’t accomplished what I wanted to in the last third of the book. It was fine and probably the best last third of the book I could write months ago when I wrote it. But I could write a better last third of the book today. Having stepped away for a couple of months, I could see where I went off-track. I knew without my editor telling me that the book needed an overhaul if I wanted it to be the best it could be (and I did want that). So I re-wrote 110 pages from scratch. Started Sunday night and finished this morning. [An exhausting process I don’t recommend.] The net result is the book is two pages shorter, but it’s 100% better. Less is more in this case.

Some days taking deleting words (maybe even re-starting) is the answer. The trick is not to get caught up with revising and re-writing the same words over and over again. Keep perspective and your eye on the end goal. You want the words on paper and you want them to be the best words you can do, but sometimes you can’t see what works best until it’s all out there available for you to review and edit.

Write then revise. It’s a good mantra.