By: Ruthanne Reid
I know, I know: this goes against everything you’ve read
online.
If there’s one thing we writers are good at, it’s beating
ourselves up. Here are some of the clubs we use on ourselves (and each other):
- Don’t edit until the first draft is done (but we all do it anyway).
- Don’t use clichés (even though effective clichés exist for a good reason).
- Don’t use adverbs (even though our favorite writers all do).
- Don’t use anything other than “said,” or your writing will be distracting (they said).
- Don’t use “said,” or your writing will be boring (they warned).
- Write every day (or you’ll never be serious enough about this).
There are plenty more, but these are a few of the biggies. I
confess I’ve wielded these like
Aragorn whaling on orcs: desperately and without
discrimination.
This year, however, has taught me an important fact: you do
NOT have to write every day to be a writer.
REALITY CHECK
The ideal reality would be writing every
day.
It would involve the delicious beverage of your choice, a
quiet morning with sunshine and birdsong (or rain, if that’s your thing), and a
thousand words or so before the toast is even warm.
Reality tends to be sloppier. We’re rushed, and our
jobs/families/health brook no time for playing. When we do sit down to write,
we have nothing left; the day has sapped our strength.
And there are interruptions (how do they always
know to when to call, just as the words start flowing?), fears rising from the
swamp like zombies, weird computers crashes and other technical issues, and the
inconvenience/gigantic terrifying mountain of learning to write well in the
first place.
Writing ain’t easy, folks. It’s a true statement (which I
heard most recently from Victoria Schwab) that if you can do anything other
than writing and find your joy, do that instead.
Or, as Thomas Mann put it, “A writer is someone for whom
writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
THE GOOD NEWS
. . .
To read the rest of the post, click here:
~*~
If you missed my
latest writing and marketing tweets, here they are again:
- Four Tips for Depicting Characters With Disabilities – Mythcreants http://ow.ly/HyOc301ylCD
- Market to Your Preferred Readership | FundsforWriters http://ow.ly/AYWC301ylVM
- Publishing & Politics: 'Toxic Negotiations,' 'Trumpian Dystopia' http://ow.ly/NiuU301ymcx
- Beats, Revisited: The Shifting Legacy of a Literary Generation http://ow.ly/oBbu301ymuu
- Writing on the Wall: Show, Don't Tell: Micro vs Macro http://ow.ly/2s9b301ymC4
- Lose the Guilt: You Don’t Have to Write Every Day http://ow.ly/P1LL301ymFm
- How to Become a Ghostwriter | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/v72j301ymIe
- Fiction University: Writing Prompt: The Skill Builder: Make and Meet a Character http://ow.ly/2F7y301ymUK
- Checklist for redesigning your book cover – and maximising the marketing opportunities | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/1CcG301yn2a
- Create A Simple Single-Author Boxed Set | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/nZAo301yn8f
- 10 Types of Visual Social Media Posts That Get Shared Like Crazy http://ow.ly/d7nw301ynlG
- 12 Most Creative Strategies to Craft an Effective Blog Post - Peg Fitzpatrick http://ow.ly/VuTI301ynte
- The Top 10 Resources for Self-Publishing Authors | Mark my Words http://ow.ly/MJNs301ynzj
- How to Figure Out Who Raised Your Hero (and Why You Need to Know) http://ow.ly/MxMp301ympa
- An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Oh no! Exclamation marks! Call the grammar-police! http://ow.ly/SMq1301ymn9
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