What do you do when you don’t want to write? When you’re having an “I don’t feel like it” day. We all have them. When you’re whiny, not in the mood, you want to watch television, or go shopping, or go outside, or you’d rather do anything else other than write.

It’s not like taking a day off work, when you can find someone to fill in for you, someone to pick up the slack until you get back to things.

If you don’t write your book, who else is going to do it? This is writing, it’s a solitary endeavor. If you don’t do the work, it doesn’t get done.

We don’t get to take a day off and assign our writing tasks to someone else. If we don’t write, the writing doesn’t get done. If we’re not in the mood and decide we’re just not going to write today, then we get behind.

Who’s going to finish your book if not you? The answer is no one. Only you can do it.

Get to work

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
Reggie Leach

I’m at the Romantic Times Convention right now but I wrote this last week. *Waving* Hi everyone, I hope your writing is setting your soul on fire this week. I hope to come back with wonderful ideas and not a cold like I did last year.

Success comes to a writer, as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.
P. G. Wodehouse

Last RT I had a moment. As I sat, packed into the plane, flying home, an intense swell of emotion came over me. I realized I’d made it farther than I’d ever imagined I would. I was an author. People came to have me sign their books. I had dinner with my editors and my agent. I talked writing with people I’ve admired for many years. It was real after so much hard work and it caught me by surprise that it would be so sweet.

I came home and worked more and I continue to work to this day. Because I never want to lose that sense of wonder at being set aflame with this dream.

Keep working and I’ll see you all next week!

You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.

- Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss

My husband and I are house-hunting. (bear with me, folks, I swear it relates to writing!)

Our realtor is showing us massive lists of houses in our town that fit our search criteria. We’ve been scrolling through the lists, kicking out the ones in neighborhoods we don’t like, dismissing the ones with too few pictures or not enough curb appeal.

Yesterday we went to look at houses, and on the way home, we passed another house with a For Sale sign in the yard. Why wasn’t THIS house on our list? It was perfect! Perfect neighborhood, perfect price range. We went home and looked it up online — the inside was perfect too!

And guess what? It was under contract.

Well, we went back to the list and discovered that we’d zoomed right past it because the website picture didn’t do the house justice at ALL. So I spent several hours last night going through the list again and investigating every house in depth, even the ones that we’d ignored earlier. And I found some more possibilities.

Often in writing, when we hit a scene and we’re stuck, we dismiss ideas of where to go because it’s too outlandish or too extreme or too ugly or too [insert adjective here]. But maybe we should try it. It doesn’t hurt us to look at a house. It doesn’t hurt you to write a few hundred words and see if there’s any potential. If it doesn’t work out, you’ve wasted a twenty minutes, and you can delete it with a click of a button.

But maybe you should try it, because otherwise, you never know what you might miss.

“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?