“Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda

I often hear people say they want to try to write a book. I tell them to do it. All of a sudden, they have all kinds of excuses. Not enough time. They don’t know where to start. Their grammar needs work. They don’t know how or where to submit their work.

My answer? I had all those concerns, and guess what? EVERY ONE OF THEM CAN BE FIXED. You make time. You start by putting your pencil to the paper. You buy a book on grammar. You join writer groups and do research for submission questions.

If you want something bad enough, you do it. If you go into it with the attitude that you’re going to “try,” instead of “I will,” you have already sabotaged yourself.

Football coaches don’t tell their team, “We’re going to try to win this game!” They say, “We WILL win!”

Military commanders won’t instill a lot of confidence in their men by saying, “We’re going to try to win this battle.”

So remember, as you’re looking at your half-finished manuscript and wondering how the heck you’re going to finish it, that you CAN finish it.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Ever wondered why you write? From time to time, I do. Especially when things are really crazy and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to focus, or I can’t seem to get enough done. But then a story finally starts flowing as it should, or I get a really, really cool idea and then I remember.

I write because I have to. I write because I love it.

A little more than a month left to go in the challenge.

How are you doing?

“… it isn’t ‘talent’ which is so important to a writer… The most important assets, I believe, are those associated with mules - a kind of stubbornness to get it done, to make it right, to make it better, and grit - not to quit - and even narrowness of purpose, a euphemism for being almost dumbly dedicated to accomplishing something.”

I’m pretty passionate about this subject…

People often say they don’t have time to write. I just don’t think that’s true. Unless you’re Kate on that reality tv show on TLC called Jon & Kate Plus Eight - the woman has twins and sextuplets and an adorable hubby who’s a bit of a goof - you have time to write. I could give you example after example of how authors are writing and getting books in under incredible odds. There are many times I wonder when people sleep, but I know the real answer is that they somehow find the time to get it all done.

I explained it this way to someone the other day: if you were told your kids or spouse or a loved one could only get what they need (whatever that is) if you did X. You would make time for X. You would work in X whenever you could. You would make X a priority. Why? Because it’s for someone you love and you would find a way to make X happen.

Why isn’t the same true for a passion you have? Why can’t you make your writing as much of a priority as you would make X?Your goals are just as important as those of your kids, spouse and loved ones. Really. You would do it for them. Do this for you. You are important too. Write.

Over at my personal blog today, we’re discussing various and sundry writing tips, particularly the ones about there being only X-number of plots.

Are there? Sure. There are only two, or seven, or twelve, or 39, or 69, or 142, or however elemental you choose to get with your analysis. The internet world is full of writing advice. It can get pretty daunting. I’ve received emails from folks who say they couldn’t have written their books were it not for my plotboard, and I’ve gotten desperate questions from folks wondering if they’re “still real writers” if they don’t.

Of course you are! These lists or interview sheets or plotboards or collaging techniques — these are just tools folks, no different than the handy-dandy kitchen gadgets. My friend is a chef, and he laughs at all the corers/peelers/slicers/shredders/choppers/etc. that they hawk on late night television (and that I have a kitchen filled with). He’s got a knife. (And an immersion blender, but that doesn’t fit my metaphor, so let’s just ignore it for a moment.) And with his knife, he can do all that other stuff.

So, if the Salad Shooter works for you, makes YOUR life easier, and is something that you like to use (I love my Salad Shooter), then use it. If not, take out your knife. You don’t need to cook like everyone else.

Whatever works for you.

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
Somerset Maugham

The Dreaded Middle is approaching - how is everyone faring?

I’m not much for taking days off from writing. Especially with my current schedule, which is write one book, then another, then another, then…well, you get the picture. I’ve been writing pretty much nonstop for the past three years. I do love my job. But this year, since the first of the year, has been rather…intense. I have a lot of books to write in a very short period of time. And on top of writing new books, there are revisions and copyedits and galleys coming in on other books that I’ve already written, so I have to make time to do those in between making deadlines on new books. Yikes!

So in the past two weeks, I was on the last few chapters of a book that had really drained me. At the same time, galleys arrived for another book and I had a limited amount of time to go through those. Which meant I had to write and do galleys at the same time. Hey, we do what we have to do, right? I managed both projects and got the galleys off to my publisher, then finished writing the book on schedule. No sooner had I finished the book then revisions on another book arrived via Fedex. (Are you sensing my no-time-to-breathe scenario here?).

I took all last week to do those revisions, and as soon as I got those out the door, I did something unheard of for me–I took a day off. I was utterly exhausted and knew I just didn’t have it in me to dive into the next book yet. So I played on the internet, I read, I watched television. In general, I vegged. It was wonderful. And I needed it.

Sometimes we push ourselves so hard we run the risk of burning ourselves out. Really not good for the muse or for our productivity. I know we have goals and we want to produce every day. But I also think it’s okay to allow ourselves a day, or even two, to regroup, to rest the muse, to let our minds wander.

The day off was great for me. I’m ready to dig into my next book with new enthusiasm.

And I can breathe again.

We’re harder on ourselves than anyone can ever be on us. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make a goal one day, or one week. And once in awhile, take a day off and just let your mind rest. You might be amazed how creative and productive you’ll become when you get back to writing again.

Always be kind to yourself. It’s something I have to remind myself of often.

I dream quite often, of a time, of a place in my life when everything around me will be still enough for me to sit and write, uninterrupted, for six daylight hours every day. This is a fantasy, a dream, a wisp of writersmoke that will of course, never happen in my life because I have three kids spaced apart in such a way that means I’ll pretty much always be running one of them around at any given time - because it’s my job.

Over the weekend I prepared to be gone for all of next week for RT. I’m the mom which means only I know the location of things important for day to day life. Only mom knows where that favorite shirt is, the names of not just teachers but other important adults, the times of various events, which things are verboten and which are mandatory. It takes longer for me to prepare to go away than to actuall be gone. So when I had envisioned the weekend to be one of oodles of writing, I knew I was fooling myself.

Still, I got my words by staying up late to finish them and doing extra on Friday because I knew this weekend would be insane.

Because no one but me knows where the right words are either. And so while I’m the mom in the family, the person who organizes and runs around, I’m the mom of my own writing too, and while my parents can help out around my husband’s schedule to make sure my kids get where they need to be, no one but me can finish my book on time.

So I’m doing it. I plan for it in the schedule just like anything else and while I love to think I’ll be uber productive, I know I probably won’t be at certain times so I just build all that into the schedule too. That way if I’m early, I can work on something else but if not, I have the time I need to get my work done.

Writing is a wonderful thing. I am fortunate to be able to make it a reality in my life. But it’s my job - like being a mom, like being someone’s partner, like the other things I have in my life - and so I plan for it accordingly. Yep, it’s totally anal retentive of me and other people certainly have different approaches that work for them.

Make it work folks, cause no one else can do it for you, but you.

Have a great writing week!!

So…how did we do? Is Spring kicking you into gear…or kicking your butt?