Day #2 Quotes for Writers

“There is no perfect time to write. There is only now.”  Barbara Kingsolver

Don’t we dream of the day when we’ll have hours and hours to do nothing but write? But life keeps getting in the way!
If we keep putting off writing until the stars align perfectly and every detail of life is in order, we’ll never write at all.
A writer’s clock really only has one time on it- NOW!
Procrastination and the desire for perfection are enemies of a writer.
Waiting will keep us from ever writing because in case you hadn’t noticed the hour glass of our lives eventually does run out of sand.
If you are having trouble implementing writing now, you might enjoy this article, Make Time to Write.
By the way, I’m not preaching what I don’t live. As I type these words, my house is torn apart from a water leak and has been this way for nearly a month. I didn’t have a useable kitchen for two weeks. I still don’t have flooring. And I have a long list of household remodeling projects to do while I’m waiting for my floors. But I’m still managing to write.
To read more from the series 31 Days of Quotes for Writers, click on the button.

Image by airdiogo on flickr

Day #7 Quotes for Writers

“I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.” Henry Louis Mencken

When I don’t get to write for a few days, I get mean. While I never thought of it as the same feeling as a cow who needs to be milked, it really is like that. Words well up in me, words that are meant to be expelled for the sake of others. If I don’t get them out, I feel swollen and out of kilter.
I’m designed to be milked of my words. It’s unhealthy for me and everyone around me when that doesn’t happen.
But when sweet release finally comes it’s such a satisfying feeling. Contentment washes over me and I can enjoy life again. I’m even nice.
This is the flow of life for writers: Intake then output. Intake then output. Intake then output.
Keeping that flow going makes us merry mooers.
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Day #6 Quotes for Writers

“I love being a writer, what I can’t stand is the paperwork.” Peter de Vries

I can relate!
The thought of being a writer, the prestige of being a writer, seeing your work published, and hearing from readers is all way better than sitting by yourself pounding out the pages.
When my writing curriculum, Hands-On Essays, was picked up by a publisher, I enjoyed traveling the country as “the author.” It was so much fun seeing my work displayed and personally taking customers through the curriculum bit by bit.
That was a far cry from the six weeks I spent locked in my office, pounding my head against a computer to create it.
Being a writer is wonderful. Sometimes typing the words isn’t as grand.
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Image by Ampersand Duck on flickr

Day #3 Quotes for Writers

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever noticed that the writers who are known to be recluses or dislike going out into society tend to write the strangest stuff? I think they create a claustrophobic life and it affects them mentally.
From the Garden of Eden, we were meant to be social, to do things, to actually live life. When we fail to do so on a regular basis, our thoughts and our writing grow stale.
It is the experiences and interactions of life that give us something to write about, that breathe life into our words.
The best way to overcome writers block and to write better is to leave the computer screen and walk out life. This is where clarity comes and ideas are born.
If you’re writing is flat and boring, create a life that isn’t and see what happens to your writing.
To read more quotes in the series 31 Days of Quotes for Writers click the button.

Image by ChrisGoldNY on flickr

Your Archenemies

They lurk in the crevices of your mind watching for an opportunity to take you down and take you out. Left unchecked, they will stop you in your tracks. Their mission: Destroy your writing productivity.
Who are these wicked villians?

    Procrastination                               and                            Perfectionism

These sinister twins work as a tag team. When you get the handle on one, the other steps in to take its place. If you aren’t careful you’ll find yourself volleying between the two and never accomplishing anything.

Procrastination boasts in his ability to make you put off writing “till later.” He flexes his muscles saying,

“You don’t have time right now.”
”Wait until things slow down and you can think.”
”One day you’ll ample time to do nothing but write.”
”All those other writers aren’t as busy as you. They have more time to write.”
”Do it later.”

When later finally comes you won’t have the same flow of inspiration. Thus, his mission is accomplished. Destruction complete.

If you happen to overcome the strength of procrastination, perfectionism is waiting for his round in the ring with you. Perfectionism is your inner English teacher, questioning your spelling, pointing out punctuation errors, holding you accountable to rigid rules that strangle your writing efforts. His job is to convince you that you must do it perfectly or it isn’t worth doing.

He’s a relentless nagger, a heartless killer of creativity, demanding perfection at every turn. If you lean your ear his way, he’ll strip you of your confidence and make you believe you can’t write at all.

The first step to winning the battle is recognizing the enemy.

Now it’s time to slay those evil villains that aim to forever label you a potentially great writer. Destroy their power and develop that potential into actual, tangible writing progress.

Win over procrastination and perfectionism!


Images by lawndart on Flickr

How Do You Spell Writing Success?

How do you become a successful writer? Success in writing can be spelled out with one simple acronym: WORK!

W- Write, write write! Writing isn’t talking about it. It’s not dreaming about the day you become an author. It isn’t even reading or studying about it. Writing is writing, the act of actually doing it. You are a writer because you write, not because you enjoy the subject or know a lot about it. No writer has ever been successful who didn’t write.

O- Overcome all obstacles. A quote from author Richard Bach hands in my office. “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” So true. Writers must persevere through all obstacles. When you face rejection, pick yourself back up and try again. When you feel discouraged, renew your vision. Keep a positive attitude. Keep going no matter what.

R- Revise and polish. Everything you write is a rough draft until it’s revised and polished. Think of it like a tarnished teapot. The rough outline is there and something beautiful lies beneath the ruddy appearance, but it takes elbow grease to make it shine. The same is true of your writing. It takes editing, revising, and rewriting to get it in top condition. If you think your first draft is good enough, you’re wrong. All writing can stand improvement.

K- Kick your excuses to the curb. Successful writers make writing a priority. They don’t wait for long stretches of writing time that will never come. They don’t allow a busy schedule to crowd out writing. They plod on when they’re tired, when they’re facing trials, when life isn’t perfect. They don’t bow to excuses. Instead, they simply write.

Some say that writing doors open for the lucky. I’ve discovered that the harder I work the luckier I get. The more writing I produce, the more doors open for me. It’s not a magic formula that brings success in writing. It’s just one magic word: WORK!


Image by Landahlauts on Flickr

Too Creative For Your Own Good

I’m the queen of ideas. Just ask my family. The well of ideas bubbles, gushes, overflows, and never runs dry.

I think the technical term for that is visionary, but really I just bore easily and need creativity almost as much as oxygen.

In some respects, having a lot of ideas is a glorious thing. My editing clients think so. They love the fact that I can look at their situation, see the big picture, open their mind to new possibilities, cast a vision for what can be, and show them how to get there.

But abundant creativity also has a downside. Every day I wake up with a fresh vision—a different one from yesterday or from an hour ago or from five minutes ago. Thus, my mind is a junkyard of rusty ideas that have never been used.

Are you like me? Do you flit from idea to idea like a bee who can’t find just the right flower with just the right pollen? Are you always finding a new flower or a new field, but never producing honey? 

How do us creative types ever get any writing done?

Obviously, I’m no expert on the subject, but I can share my “ideas” on the issue.

Pick one. Pick an idea, something you really like, that arouses passion in you, that you could actually stick with for a while and not get bored. This is half the battle, simply choosing one idea to run with. We are so afraid we won’t pick the right one or that we’ll get halfway through the project and be too bored to finish. Or worse yet, what if we don’t pick the perfect one or we miss God’s will? Yikes!

Find an accountability partner. Hint: You are not it! Find someone else, someone less flighty, someone who has a history of actually accomplishing things. Find someone who will rein you in when your mind starts to wander and someone who won’t put up with your junk. Find a drill sergeant!

Delegate. One reason I don’t follow through very well is because I hate the nitty gritty administrative tasks that go into bringing my ideas to fruition. I easily get bogged down in these details and feel like I’m suffocating from a lack of creativity. If you have the money and resources, which I often do not, hire some help to do the things you don’t do well.

Always have a creative outlet. Don’t become so engrossed in a project or in life that you can’t ever let those creative ideas flow. You aren’t made to operate this way. But you may need to find creativity in other ways while you focus on a writing project so you won’t be tempted to run off on another writing tangent. For example, if I’m heavily engrossed in a writing project, I’ll do crafts, homemaking projects, or gardening on the side to keep those creative juices flowing without interfering with my writing.

In a perfect world, I could continually come up with new ideas and then implement them all. But I don’t live in a perfect world. But sometimes I think I do. Therein lies the problem. I don’t have forever, but I think I do. So I churn out idea after idea, but have nothing to show for it.

Sometimes I'm just too creative for my own good.

Where Do I Fit in the Wide World of Writing?

When you feel God nudging you to write, the most natural assumption in the world is that He wants you to write a book. After all, isn’t that what writers do? They write books.

But when you make this innocent assumption you limit God.

More than any other generation, our options for spreading the word are boundless. A book is only a tiny fraction of the ways you can publish the message God has put on your heart, and it’s probably the most difficult to achieve.

Before you head down a path that may take years of your life, years that might otherwise have been spent getting your message into the hands of those who need it, stop and ask God the path you should take. You have no guarantees that your book will ever be published, at least not in the traditional sense. The competition is stiffer now than ever. Granted, if God has called you to that road, He will make a way, but don’t be too hasty in assuming that is your chosen path.

Instead, consider book publishing as one, but only one, of your many options. Pray also about blogging, building a website, creating a newsletter or e-zine, guest blogging, writing magazine or newspaper articles, self-publishing. But don’t limit God to even these.

When God nudges your heart to write simply say, “What do you want me to write? And what do you want me to do with it when it’s written?” This takes God out of a box and gives Him free reign to direct your path.

Often His answer will be, “Start writing and I’ll show you.” Let Him do just that.

But I Have Small Children

Finding time to write can be difficult, but even more so when you have little ones who need your constant attention. I know mommies and daddies have very little time so let me get to the point and share some practical ideas for writers with young’uns.

1. Give yourself permission to survive. I don’t care what anybody says, sometimes you just don’t have writing time. I remember when my first child was born. I’d been through a horrendous labor that zapped all my strength and my baby didn’t like to sleep. It took weeks before I could walk across the room without collapsing. It took a full year before I even felt tinges of normal returning and it took two years before I had the mental energy to think a creative thought. At some junctions in life, surviving is enough.

2. Take advantage of naps. Forget about cleaning the house. It can wait or the kids can be your “helpers” later. Use nap time to tap into your creative side.

3. Put God first. If you have to choose between spending time with God and writing, choose God. Filling up is more important than pouring out. Besides, you will accomplish far more writing with God’s help than without it.

4. Barter for some writing time. Do you have a service you could offer someone in exchange for a few hours of babysitting? Can you swap kids with another mom? I used to trade kids once a week with a friend. One afternoon I’d be the babysitter and the next week I’d have free time.

5. Reserve special toys as treats. I have a love/hate relationship with Playdough. I always hated to clean up after the kids played with it because it was in the carpet, stuck to chairs, and stuck to the bottom of their socks. But Playdough was also my friend. I only allowed the kids to play with it once in a while and I made sure they had lots of colors and all the accessories to go with it. They would stay at the table for hours creating masterpieces, thus freeing me to focus on other things.

Choose a few special toys, things the kids dearly love, and reserve those for times when Mommy or Daddy need to write.

6. Include the kids. Supply them with paper, crayons, a pretend keyboard and let them “write” too.

7. Decide if it’s your hobby or your business. If writing is a hobby, then assign it that place in your life. It’s the thing you do to relieve stress, but it’s not something that should usurp your priorities or take over your life or your children’s lives. If it’s a business, then you’ll have to get very intentional about scheduling time and getting help so that the kids aren’t shortchanged in the equation.

8. Snatch the time. Seize whatever writing time presents itself. Be ready at a moment’s notice to write. If your spouse takes the kids for a walk, if they suddenly become engrossed in an activity, if a sleepy child goes to bed early—snatch it!

9. Be fully present. If you are with the kids, be with the kids, not in a creative stupor. If it’s time to write, then write. Don’t feel guilty or rehearse your “to do” list in your head. Engage.

10. Don’t put the kids on hold. Writing can wait, children cannot. This time will pass quickly. When the kids are grown I promise you won’t look back and say, “If only I’d spent less time with those doggone kids and gotten more writing done!” But you will regret it if their childhood is lost while you stare at a computer screen. Keep everything in perspective.

Editing to say this post wasn't supposed to appear until next Monday, but here we are. I guess we'll get back to the "it" factor in the next post!

Since we're on a roll of changing topics, let me say that my friend Bethany is offering one of her eBooks, Taming the Paper Monster, at a 20% discount. Who couldn't use a resource for cutting down on paper? Just go to her website and click on eBooks to find this treasure.

The Struggle and the Balance

I walked in the door after meeting with a writing client and his wife. I was in writing mode, pumped up, ready to dig in and get some serious work done. It would be easy; it always is when I’m in that frame of mind.

But my daughter had something else on her mind. Would I take her to the fabric store to get some scraps for the rag rug she’s making?

Torn.

This would be such a prime time to get some writing done and I knew it would come easily and efficiently, much easier than it does when I have to prime the pump. But my daughter is my first priority, above my work. And I’m keenly aware than in just a few short years she will be off to college, not here to ask for my time.

Torn.

If I said yes to writing I’d feel guilty the whole time and my efficiency would go down the drain. If I said yes to my daughter, I’d never be able to retrieve the zone again and I’d feel guilty for not accomplishing something when I had the chance.

Torn.

That’s how I live my life. Torn. This one scenario plays out day after day, only the characters and circumstances change. I want to write and produce and to have something to sell the people who always email me asking if I have another curriculum completed yet, but the reality is I’m a wife, a mother, a homemaker, a homeschooling mom, and I still haven’t figured out how to balance it all and accomplish much. And I spend a lot of time feeling guilty because of it.

Torn.

And I’m writing this because if there is anything I truly want to be on this blog it’s real. And I know a lot of you experience the same struggles in one way or another and the same feelings and the same guilt.

I wish I had pat answers for all of us: a magic schedule that allows for writing time at just the right moments, a scale that perfectly balances life for writers so that nothing is ever out of whack, or even a crystal ball that lets us know the right choice to make every time we have to decide the best way to use our time. But I’m human and I don’t have any of those things to offer.

I do, however, offer empathy. I can feel your struggles. I know them well.
And I know the answer lies in listening to the Lord. I wish I could say that I always hear Him perfectly and always know the right choice to make, but sometimes I think I need a heavenly hearing aid.

So I offer encouragement to all of you who know what it feels like to be torn. You are not alone.

P.S. I struggled more pressing "publish" on this post than any I've ever written. It feels very raw and vulnerable, maybe too transparent. But it is what it is.

The Fun Side of Writing

You finally got that publishing contract! At long last you hold the fulfillment of your dreams in your hot little hands! Watch what happens next.

Thank you, Kelly and Warren, for sharing this hysterical look at the real writing life!

Balancing the Scale

I write about it often, this balancing of life and writing. I do so because I know it’s the thing that we all struggle with so much. Few writers have all the time in the world to write. In fact, most of us have precious little time for writing and we have to squeeze it in around all the other bigger, weightier, chunkier parts of life, the stuff that involves actual living and mingling with real flesh and blood, breathing people.

How do we find the balance? I’m not sure we do. The fact is that when we make great deposits in writing, the scale leans that way and the stuff of life becomes a bit light, even neglected if we aren’t careful. Then, when we plunge full force into living, the writing side of the scale shoots up in the air from lack of paper weight.

We can get in a dither about it, our inability to balance the scale, or we can accept it as the natural way of living. This is the life of a writer, the life we willingly signed up for when we took this road. Oh, it may not look like what we expected, but this is it. 

Instead of looking at the scale from a stressful stance, look at it a little differently. Think in terms of a seesaw. One side goes up, one goes down. One child up, one child down. Back and forth, bringing delight to both ends. 

This picture is vivid in my mind. I was a child living in Texas with a park across the street from my house. My friends and I would go there to replenish from long school days. The seesaw went up and down, the merry-go-round cycled round and round again. Yet, we didn’t complain. Those rhythms brought a peace, relaxation, a little tingle in the tummy. They made us feel secure and safe and full of childlike wonder. 

And so it is with writing. Rather than trying to keep the scale in perfect balance, I find it best to simply enjoy the ride. Sometimes I’m full to fatness with words that simply must come out. But once they are released I feel the lightness that compels me to invest quality time in the world around me and the people I dearly love.
Before long, I’ve filled up again with inspiration and stories that must come out.

The endless cycle. The writing life. The thing I said I wanted.

Glam Writers

We’ve finally come into our own! Yes, it’s true. Writing is now considered a glamorous occupation.

How do I know this? It seems that every time I turn around I see a movie that casts a writer as a main character. Over the last year I’ve seen so many movies and TV shows about writers (Marley and Me, The Story of Us, Raymond, nearly every Hallmark movie that I watch) . Apparently, we’re a hot ticket item now. Writing is definitely “in”!

It’s funny, though. So many of the writers on the silver screen are a bit different from most writers that I know. For one thing, they live in houses with hefty mortgages, a least a half a mill in most cases. I could understand if they were best-selling authors, but most are things like columnists, mediocre novelists, or magazine writers. Most of the writers that I know personally have to keep their day job, only one verifiably makes a six figure income. Few could afford more than a cheap motel room if they were only living on their writing income.

These glam writers also lead lives a wee bit different from mine. You might see them writing from time to time, but you don’t see them sitting at the computer until their eyes are crossed and brain fried, you know, like real writers do. And you don’t see the mounds of laundry and dishes piling up either!

But you know what? I don’t care if Hollywood takes a few exaggerated liberties with their writing characters. I’m just really excited that someone thinks that writing is a cool job! I hope that seeing these writers on the big screen will change the old nerdy writing stereotype into something a little more…well…glamorous, and that as a result, kids will see writing as a worthy endeavor again.

So, the next time someone asks what you do, strike a pose like you’re on the red carpet and in your most sophisticated voice say, “I’m a writer. Would you like my autograph?” 


(Image by Vintage Lulu )