Sometimes writing is something you chug along at by yourself. Other times you are hopelessly dragging and just when you think you simply cannot go on, there is a writing eucatastrophe and you are encouraged to once again pick yourself up and march back to the page.

Many things can elicit these feelings of motivation for a writer. This could be a professor who makes sense of a writing secret, an article that someone shares with you about the writing process, or a pat on the back from someone in your writer’s group.

I wanted to take this entry to mention two great places to find that little burst of energy. Andrew, my good friend who is with me on the quest for publication has started his own blog. I bring it up because it has been a tremendous encouragement to me. I highly recommend you to visit his personal blog and the Breathe writing conference blog. Both of them are great tools for garnering the gumption that you need to get moving on your stories.

Cheers,

Bob

Here is an early, terribly down to earth, video interview of beloved author J.K. Rowling. In it you can sense her eagerness to write and her commiserating statement that she dreamed (as most who write do) of supporting herself through writing.

As of this video she was writing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. You may be intrigued to hear that she says there will be more books of some sort after Harry is done and that she fancies being “Big in Finland”, in a very modest way. May you be inspired by her humility and be filled with a desire to place words on the page.

Cheers.

Five long years ago, I began writing, not because I had a novel in mind, it was merely an idea at that point. This idea has morphed into something quite different than from what I first intended but, an idea I have become more and more fond of. Now, I am here, five years later writing as hard and fast as possible to refine and polish that idea into the second draft of a novel before my second daughter is born in September.

While I would enjoy to prattle on and on about my own projects I am not here to tell you all about my work (though I will a little). The intention of this blog is to share  what I have learned with those who work full time, have children, are otherwise engaged, but still have the wild dream of publishing a novel someday. Thus, with all of the other responsibilities you and I juggle, I thought Parttimenovel would be a good title. I hope that through this site, my readers will be able to see my progress and triumphs as well as share their own. (Please do!)

For those beginning their work, you may be under the unfortunate impression that writing is something that comes easy and it sometimes does but, unfortunately, at such a rapid pace that it requires tremendous editing. It is more in the line of a job. For some it is a horrible job and you might soon discover it is not for you, having thought you could make a quick buck. For others it is a job occasionally but, more than that, a vocation, something we feel compelled to do. The enjoyment of words and the thrill of finishing a new chapter is something that cannot be subdued in our beings. We write, simple as that.

For a long time I struggled with the notion of calling myself a writer. I have not published anything (at least not in something that is still in circulation). I was not embarrassed of it, I just wanted to avoid the impending question that follows my response of acknowledging I am one which is, ‘so what are you writing about?’. I hated, and still do hate, the idea of conforming my novel that has been blooming and growing for five years into a one liner.

One of my good friends, who works in the publishing industry, always asks me to give him my pitch, the one liner that would define my work. When he asks, my mind swims with responses: I have to put hundreds and thousands of words into twelve words? Did I mention this is the first of several books? It’s not like other works, its… well… different! “How so?” he asks. That’s a good question. I hope to have that figured out before I am done.

Until next time, keep writing, keep writing, keep writing!!