There are all sorts of things that can derail your focus and your enthusiasm for writing. Part of being successful is learning how to ignore all of them. One of the less obvious problems is what I call the falsely concerned friend issue. This is the person (or persons) in your life who tries to sound helpful and encouraging but who really is trying to break your confidence. I’ve been extremely lucky in this regard, but I have writing friends who have experienced this nasty treatment from people they once trusted.

I found this quote from Mark Twain that addresses the issue:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Bottom line: Remember to surround yourself with people who support you and your dreams. This career path can be hard enough without that added stress.

Just a couple more weeks. Where do you stand?

If you haven’t seen me around the Sven blog in the last few check-in posts, it’s because I finished my challenge book, and I’ve been recuperating and waiting for the edits to come in. Which they did. And now they’re due, too.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but typing “The End” (yes, I type “The End” on every one of my manuscripts, and I don’t care what the purists say!) is far, far from the actual end. It’s the first step, and a phenomenally important one, but there’s plenty more pain work fun to come.

It is often said, “Books are not written; they’re rewritten.” Also often said is, “Wanna knuckle sandwich, smart mouth?” I’m not one who loves revisions. I’m one who… has acquired a taste for them. I know they are necessary, and they make my book better, and they are to be appreciated with all my heart and soul. But it’s rarely “the fun part.”

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be able to figure out how to “write it right the first time.” I know I can do it on a small scale. There have been scenes in every one of my books that are never touched in any round of revisions. When I’m in the midst of editing, I live for those scenes, those precious little chunks I can glide right past on my way to the next tangle.

But they are a gift, and what is more, I don’t know if I’d even want something like that on a grand scale. Knowing that my drafts are not yet perfect, and that’s okay, is occasionally the only thing that keeps me going. Otherwise, I might get stuck in that need for first-time perfection, and never finish anything.

Sometimes, the answer can’t come until after I’ve moved past that scene or plot point, and can look on it from beyond, or even look at it as part of a whole.

It’s only recently that I’ve truly learned to appreciate Nora Robert’s adage, “You can’t fix a blank page.” Yeah, I used to mutter, but you can’t screw it up, either.

You know what else you can’t do? You can’t read it to friends, or sell it to a publisher. Don’t be afraid of imperfection. Keep writing. There are always edits.

So, as I set up to write this blog post, I realized we’re getting close to the finish line.

It makes me a little melancholy. I have a lot to do and I don’t want my time with Sven (and the rest of you) to end. Even though we all don’t engage in daily conversation about our writing, as I open my manuscript file every day and start writing, I know you’re all out there, writing with me.

It helps. Knowing I’m not doing this alone, this struggle to put words to the page, to make word count within a set time period, makes me feel better. Writing is solitary enough without thinking we’re in it alone.

You’re not doing this alone. I’m here. We’re all here.

Hope it’s going well for you. Let’s all have a really good week.

Not long to go now. Are you still racking up those word counts? Or falling by the wayside?

Confess your progress… or lack of it.

I am soooo tired! I got back from RT just a smidge under a week ago and I’m only just now beginning to catch up with my life again. Part of me is inspired, after all, how can anyone not be after spending a week around so many other creative people? I usually get ideas for stories when I visit other places and this time is no different although for me, it’s all about the Pennsylvania Turnpike (and dude, I’m telling you, I’m totally scarred by any stretch of road where you CAN’T GET OFF!)

Anyway, I have a book due on May 15 and I’d hoped to finish before I left for RT. But my parents were here. I wanted to write, I did, but I spent more time packing and getting ready for RT and making sure everyone was set for me to be gone eight days than writing. And then I didn’t get a darned thing written while in Pittsburgh so now I’m about ten days behind schedule.

It’s not always 3K a day for me without any effort. This book has been hard to write. I’ve been pulled in several directions and I’ve wanted to focus on three other things and I’ve had to set it down to revise and edit other things but when I picked it up when I got home, I realized it’s way better than I’d thought. So I’m still working like the little engine that could because it’s not a maybe line, it’s a deadline and I do love this world a lot.

Some days it’s shiny to write, some days it’s just a job. But it’s all good - because in the end, when I finish, I feel like I could move mountains - even if it’s just for a few hours until I need to work on something else, LOL.

Keep working! Every word you get down is one that wasn’t there before.

“If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” — Toni Morrison

This was why I started writing, and why I would have continued to write, even if I hadn’t sold a single manuscript.

This is why I write. Getting paid is just a bonus.

Blocked? Remember the story you want to read, the one no one has written…and write it.

Yikes! Forgot to blog! RT totally fried my brain and when I realized I had today–as in I should have posted this uh…16 hours ago? I figured a nice, quick quote would work.

Found this one

To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

by Anne Rice, found here.

And how very apt. Because right now, I’m writing something I’m not sure makes sense to anybody but me, something I’m not sure anybody will like, characters I think some people might hate…or at least dislike. And I’m wondering–why

Anne Rice has the answer. Writing sometimes meet taking chances that cool make you look…well, weird.

Take the chance!

It’s the middle of the week. Lots of stuff to do. But are you writing…? Tell Sven about those projects.

“You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something, perhaps something silly. It simply doesn’t matter what… In five or ten minutes the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.”