I keep making excuses why I can’t write. Too busy. Kid needs my attention. Too tired.
Note to self: STOP IT. Just STOP. You are NEVER going to publish, or even get close to it, if you don’t suck it up and finish the damned book. And you probably won’t get this one published, either, but do you think you’re going to get there if you don’t finish one first? You’re learning craft as you go. Whether this one is published or not is largely irrelevant. What matters is that you write.
Life *does* get in the way. No matter how hard I wish, there just aren’t 50 hours in a day. After kids and work and keeping the house from falling apart at the seams…yeah. Not a lot of time. Write when you can. Do what you need to do to get it done. Here’s me saying that, and commenting while I should be writing. In my precious hours between sending the kids to school and heading off to work :/
Oh, absolutely life gets in the way. But I do tend to not write when I can, because I’m “too tired.” And sometimes I AM too tired, but others I just don’t want to bother, even though I could work on it.
Well, good luck. And get back to work! I’m procrastinating on a scene where I need to situate my main character in her life (the previous one introduces her) and that has utterly failed to happen.
If you really want to write, make it a discipline, like working out. You must write everyday. Pick a time–lunch time, after school, after dinner, whenever– and if it doesn’t happen then, you Have To write before sleeping, in a notebook by your bed. At least, this “tough love” approach works for me. Hope that helps. Good luck. I hope to read your book(s)! ~ Lily
This resonates SO STRONGLY with me. Especially because I don’t have family distractions as an excuse, just excuses.
My novel(s) has been floating around in my head for ten years. Ten. Years. Words I’ve actually written of/about it? Likely fewer than 10,000. I’ve got to get off my ass, because I’ve been telling myself in all that time that my job (whatever it happens to be) is just a day job. But what do I do? I go to work, I come home, I mess around on the internet or play a video game or veg out in front of netflix, and I go to bed. Every day. And it has to stop.
Thanks for this, it was my wake-up call as much as it was yours.
Nancy,
Don’t know how you managed to find this–or maybe I wasn’t as successful as I thought in divorcing it from my FB–but welcome! Glad you made it.
Yeah, I still plan to veg out sometimes, but I need to write more often, and with less fear. Join me! Looking forward to seeing you again!