I hesitate to write about writing here. Mostly because it jinxes me. "Hey everyone, I'm writing a book!" I write, and suddenly 3 days later I stop writing a book because I am tired or sick or stressed or busy, and then I feel like an idiot.
No one wants to be the girl who cries "productive book-writer."
Nonetheless, that is what I've been doing since my birthday. Chris and I tried a new schedule last week, one that involves us getting up REALLY early and spending a little more than an hour in a cafe each morning. I write, he codes (or learns or invents or a number of other fun-sounding adjectives). Then we go to work.
For the millionth time, I relearn the lesson that to do something (anything, really), you just have to do it. There are no shortcuts. You cannot run a marathon by talking about it and you can't write a book by thinking about it. You just have to write.
I spend 10-15 minutes every single morning thinking what shit it all is. "This is terrible," I think. "I am ESL. I am not creative. No one will read this. I will never finish it. I should be doing a million other things, things that I am better at."
Finally, I give up. "OK," I say to myself. "It's terrible. But keep going anyway."
And that's where I'm at.
*Charles Baxter's advice for writers
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1 comments:
Yup. I think that, when writing a book, it's more the journey than the destination. And there will be detours, speed bumps, and backtracking. Also, long Sunday drives and some off-roading. Every day that I don't write, I feel like I am shirking my duty - O! The guilt! So sometimes I write because I am inspired, and sometimes I write so I can get on with my day and sometimes I write because if I don't I'll feel like a flake. I'll take it any which way.
Now stop reading this and go write something ;)
xo
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