One of my favorite writers is Steven Pressfield.
Though I don’t know him personally, he’s taught me many truths through his books. Not cute, fun truths, but tough in-your-face ones.
If I sit back and survey the times that I’ve stopped writing it’s not because I didn’t love the ride but it was because I was either uninspired or lazy.
It was during a time when I did not consider what was at stake when I merely skipping a days’ word count, that I picked up his book The War of Art.
Mr. Pressfield taught me that I wasn’t simply taking a break, I was sacrificing my dream of writing every time I took a pass.
The truth is, I’d like it to be easy. I’d like a clean cut trail exactly where I want to go with my books.
I type.
Books are published.
Simple as that.
But any successful writer, no matter if you view their work as drivel or snobbish, has overcome the uninspired feeling and done the one sure fire action toward a publishing career.
They wrote when their schedules told them they should be writing.
They are professionals about their books.
How about you?
Do you dream of the easy lottery book contract worth millions?
Or are you writing, and saving the day dreams for when the days’ work is done?
I’ve been reading The War of Art. A lot of truths in that book. As Pressfield says, the hardest part of writing is not the writing but making yourself sit down and do the work.
I wonder why that is? I am there 100%. We want to make writing this grand artistic struggle, and it is in one sense, but it’s also simple math.
2 hours in chair = 1000 words. Right?
How has writing been going to for you?
On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 11:15 AM, PART-TIME NOVEL wrote:
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My issue is not feeling uninspired, but rather, what if it sucks? What if I bleed for years and finish my work only to be told by editors that they’ve read better stories on bathroom stalls?
That, and laziness, are dragging me down.
Rob,
I am not sure if you like JK Rowling or not but she has a great quote about her books. It’s on my Twitter feed but it’s something like – I write for me only. I write to entertain myself.
Editors get it wrong all of the time. In fact, most of the time per most of the data out there. So don’t worry about that.
Maybe doing your best, writing what you love, and seeing what happens is enough. You then create something only you can. If that is not enough, then maybe we are after something else entirely, like money, or fame, or acceptance.
What do you think?
This has prompted a post for Thursday. Thanks for the comment!
On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 2:30 PM, PART-TIME NOVEL wrote:
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