“You can’t say, I won’t write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then… you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.”
~Dorothy C. Fontana
I didn’t write yesterday but it wasn’t because I didn’t want to. I just didn’t have anything to say, well nothing that I felt was worthy of being read by you guys. But today I am reminded that I must still write even when I don’t feel like it.
I suppose if I had some deadline to reach (for an actual publisher or editor) I would be more inclined to write even when the mood doesn’t strike. However, the only way I can get to that stage of writing with a deadline for a publisher or agent in mind, or writing an article for an editor on deadline, is if I act as if I have a deadline now. I think I need to start making my own deadlines for certain things that I need to get accomplished and actually sticking to those deadlines as if my life depended on it (mostly because it does).
Even if there is no publisher or agent waiting for my finished work right at this very moment, I am confident (most days) that there will be. I need to make sure that when it counts I won’t find or create an excuse not to put my butt in the chair and write.
It’s different when you write as a hobby because then you really can wait until the mood strikes you to write. You can do other things that you are really motivated to do and when the story hits you a certain way, then you can go write it all down.
On the other hand, a writer, a person who this is not a hobby for but rather something that they are driven to do and are meant to do, something that they can’t live their life without doing, can’t have that luxury. We can’t just wait for that muse (which, let’s face it, doesn’t stick around 24/7) to hit us and we can’t not write until that muse strikes.
This is our livelihood (at least it’s what we would like our livelihood to be) and to be successful at it we can’t just not show up to the desk to write. We have to plant our butts in that chair at the desk or the dining room table, or wherever you write at, and get writing.
Even if it sounds like garbage at first, it could very well be an unpolished jewel, waiting to be polished later on when your muse can begin to make it shine. So for all of you out there who woke up today not feeling like you want to write, write anyway!
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)
Writing as “Jaycee Durant”
http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310
Write 2 Be 