No Matter What, Just Write

Being a writer is a lot like just about anything else. It has its ups and downs and in betweens. There are days you think you’re a rock star. And there are days you just think you’re a rock. But I think the one thing that separates published authors from the rest of us is dedication to just putting your butt in a chair and writing. Every day.

Last year I participated in NaNoWriMo. I’d done it before and remembered it being overwhelming. Then I took a few years off because I decided I need to focus on one major project at a time and the one with the price tag and ticking clock was my doctorate. With it finished, though, there were no more excuses. So last November, I got myself into the habit of sitting down and writing. Every. Day.

The other habit I forced on myself last November was to put my desire to tweak and edit away. I am, hands down, my own worst critic. (Really in every part of my life.) To make any progress at all though, I have to stop critiquing and just focus on hammering out the words. There is always time to revise and edit. But you have to have words written down in order to do so. Honestly, I found this more difficult than getting into the chair every day. But days when I did poorly and spent my time trying to change the words and tighten things up as I went? I wrote way less. And I usually ended up leaving my computer feeling frustrated, disheartened, and ready to just chuck the idea that I could write entirely.

I’ll admit that when I finished the novel I started for NaNo, I took a little break from getting back in the chair every day. Sure, I was polishing the manuscript. I was researching publishers and agents. I was busy with lots of writing work. But I wasn’t busy writing. And now that I’m back with my own little mini NaNo this month, I’m having to relearn the discipline of getting into the chair and just getting something on paper. (It’s annoying, frankly. Because I had been doing so well.)

Yesterday was a rough day. I was busy with life stuff and I’d written myself into a corner, I thought, the day before, so I really wasn’t sure what in the world was supposed to happen next. So I’ll admit to procrastinating. But after the kids were in bed, I took a deep breath and sat down and I wrote. I’d love to tell you the words flowed and that the prose that issued forth from my fingers was worthy of the best of them. But that would be a lie.

I’m reasonably certain that, when I go back after the manuscript is finished, and edit – those words will be some of the most in need of tweaking (and probably deleting). But I’m not dwelling on it – that just gets my editor all riled up and kills off today’s productivity. For now, I have a direction so I’m going to just keep on marching. Which reminds me, I need to run …it’s time to write.