Echoing A Recent Post of Mine...

Here is a good article I found that reiterates my point about making the time to write. Writing must be a priority (not necessarily THE priority, but a priority), or you will never get anywhere with it. Writers write. So many people don't seem to understand this. If we can sit in front of our TVs for 20+ minutes a day, we can find the time to write. Maybe instead of wasting so much of our time, we should manage it better.

Find Time to Write Your Novel
Finding the time to write your novel can be a challenge in today's always-on work environment. See how published novelist Jean Shields Fleming balances her creative life and her professional life--and how you can, too.
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In college, I would read books for pleasure or write in 5 or 10 minute chunks before or between classes. It wasn't a lot, but at least I accomplished something. And it really piles up over the course of a day, much less a week.

Stop the excuses. Just write. Even if it's "horrible," it's something. You can always rework it later, or throw it out altogether. Sometimes we just have to wade through the muck, the bad writing, before we can accomplish any good writing.

Really, that's the metaphor for a writer's whole career, really. Because there's always something more to improve.

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Feeling Like A Winner!

I. Kicked. Butt. Today. I did a ton of great work today in my editing, I think! After struggling most of the day with the rough draft, trying to add more description to various parts of the story, my creativity finally kicked in this evening as my perseverance paid off! I'll have to type up the changes tomorrow, but I'm really pleased with my work. I think it has promise as it is, and once I polish it, I think it could definitely win the contest. I don't know if it will, of course, but I'm hoping it will!

Yesterday was some of the same. I spent it editing. Mostly, I fixed grammatical mistakes or misspellings. I even went through and changed some words that I had been overusing. I added a little bit of new writing to it, but not a whole lot. In addition to the editing on the story, I began two new poems. One of them...I really don't know exactly where it was going. It sort of turned into a ranty piece about how I feel, being stuck at home without a job. But aside from one or two salvageable lines, it really sucks so far. I can't seem to capture the things I want to say with just the right words. I have a feeling it'll go through a major rewrite. The other poem I started is about writing. It kind of rambled along until it developed the theme of writers block and trying to meet deadlines. I dunno that it's all that great, but it sure pleased me a heck of a lot more than the other poem.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my new book when I get a chance. I've been pretty good about not letting it interfere with or distract me from my writing so far. It's kind of like when I was in college, or grad. school: I sneak a little of my pleasure reading in during lunch time, or right before bed, to help myself relax. That way, I can read something that I really want to, but not at the expense of my work.

Now if only the book weren't so hard to put down at the end of lunch, or my bedtime...

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