The Sin of Being Uncomfy

Something I noticed myself going through quite often, and this may be true of other writers, was the constant distracting from writing due to the thought "man, I'm just not comfortable right now." Then it becomes a matter of finding a better spot. You think "the coffee shop will be better," so you wait until you can go there and stop writing. Or maybe you're originally feeling antsy while at the coffee house and decide to write at home, but then spend an hour drinking coffee or roaming the net with handy coffee-house WiFi.

What I realized after several instances of this odd feeling, that if I were only more cozy in an environment that the words would flow, was what a ridiculous notion it was. The only thing making me or any other writer uncomfortable while sitting on the couch or in a nice chair and table is the fear of writing something lousy. To combat this fear, we make up excuses for not writing. It's as if we're at an amusement park, and we see the roller coasters. We know we need to ride them, why else would we be at an amusement park full of the things? But instead of hopping in line, maybe we say to ourselves "Eh, I'm feeling queesy right now," or "it looks like a long wait, so I better wait until later." They're just excuses not to be brave. If we don't get over them, we'll never know the thrill of the loop-dee-loop or the joy of finishing a novel.

I Love a Boring Story To Spice Up

Something I realized today while trying to rewrite my novel's synopsis was that there were some seriously boring parts of the story. The characters had nothing to do for a while until they arrived at a date later on in the story where I plan exciting things to happen. At the same time, it didn't feel right to introduce characters and then flash forward to events weeks or months later. You need to get to know these guys. Dwelling on it, I suddenly remembered what makes writing so great. In real life, things are going to be boring. We wake up, do our thing that's planned that day, which is normally mundane except for special occasions and then go to bed. In the fictional world, you get to refuse that. If my main character is having a slow week, guess what? It's party time! Oh no, maybe he'll kiss the wrong girl at the party by mistake. Maybe he'll like it too much? Maybe not, but whatever happens, I don't have to be bored by it. That's the power of fiction, to re-imagine life and the world absent of anything that bogs us down.

Inspiration Vs Job

I've always felt that for good writing to happen you have to look at what you do as if it's a second job. There's your day job, and then there's writing. Admittedly, I haven't put in many hours on that second job lately. Instead, I realized today that I've been writing under a very different and much worse platform: inspiration writing.

It isn't that there's something wrong with feeling inspired. Sometimes an idea might hit you in the middle of the night, you leap out of bed and scribble it down on whatever scrap of paper you reach first because it's just that damn good of an idea!!! The thing is, this doesn't happen whenever you want. You know what does happen anytime you so choose? Just plain out writing. It's like what I said in my first post, the idea of writing professional is attractive to me because of the freedom it provides, you work when you please. The thing is, you still have to work, you have to write. Inspiration doesn't sit down to a table, pick up the pen and put down some story. You have to make the writing happen, whether it's inspired or not. Something I strongly believe is that the key to writing is to not be afraid to write worthless material. You can fix up worthless material into something worthwhile. There's no second draft to be made from a blank page.

The reason this is suddenly so important to me is because of a book I've been reading lately, called “Novelist's Boot Camp” by Todd A. Stone. The whole thing is very good, but there's one section that stands out to me. Drill 10 (because it's 'boot camp') describes how it's a bad idea to write whatever's “trendy” at the current time. The reason being is that is takes a long time to get something published. Stone explains the ideal situation to write a book: you have no other job, you spend 12 hours each day on the thing, you're accepted by the first publisher you mail, they push your book out as quickly as they can.

“Total elapsed time from concept to store shelf – in a theoretical best-of-all-possible-worlds scenario – would be about eighteen to nineteen months.”

I've got a day job, I've got friends, I've got community theatre, I've got organizations I belong to, and I've got times when I just like to chill out. If I'm able to squeeze in three hours of writing per day, I'd be lucky to have the novel published within three years. Three hours a day would be a very small second job. Writing on inspiration alone won't get me a novel published until retirement.

You just have to want it bad enough.