Friday, August 5, 2011

Just Do It

I'm writing this post to give myself a little motivation.


I'm in a major transitional part of my life right now.  I'm switching computers (going to buy a new one very soon).  I'm going to China next week.  I'm entering my last year of college, or university, as some of you might call it.  I'm turning twenty-two soon.


Not to mention I've hit full-on re-entry shock.  So that's been interesting.


I've been feeling kind of grumpy about getting back on a plane, to be honest.  I didn't like the idea of packing, going to an airport, going through security, and then just SITTING for what feels like an eternity.


"How am I going to do this again?" I moaned to myself in my head as I performed my daily tasks.

"You just do it," my better sense replied.

I've been making excuses like this about not writing.  How am I going to write a WHOLE book?  I'm too young.  It will suck.  I don't have the time.

Again: I'll just do it.

So I've been finding (or stealing, rather) little bubbles of time to write.  Two hundred words here.  Seven hundred there.  Making the most out of fifteen,  twenty, thirty minutes, if only to silence the voices in my head that tell me AH HA HA THIS BOOK IS RIDICULOUS GIVE UP NOW OH LOOK A SQUIRREL YOU HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH ICE CREAM TODAY.

Some days I don't feel like a writer.  But a writer I am and write I must.  So, off I go.  I wish you all very productive weekends.  Or not.

What do you all do to get yourselves kickstarted on a project?








4 comments:

  1. Personally, I look at the bills to be paid in the in tray and remember that they don't pay themselves lol :)

    Good luck with everything ahead!

    Rory

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  2. Marjorie, it's okay not to write every day. Personally, I sometimes go months without writing. That time is not useless...it distances you from characters so that you have better perspective on them and it also gives you perspective on what you HAVE written so that you can see it with a clear head.

    I think that writing 250 words a day is fine if that's all you can manage. Also, the writing is probably going to be a lot better than a whole day spent plugging away to get 5000 words onto a page. Give yourself time to develop and also, all that traveling you do...that affects your writing too.

    You can tell when a writer has experience behind them. Experience from cultures to languages to things that you see everyday find their way into the writing. I'm sure when you get to China, your eyes will be seeing things so differently than others. You'll be looking at what people wear and how to describe that in words...you'll look to the shape of buildings...or the types of bikes people ride, etc.

    Experience...you may not be writing every day or writing all that much...but make no mistake that just by living your life, you are constantly working on that Work In Progress.

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  3. Michael,

    Thank you. I needed that.

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  4. You've given yourself great advice: "You just do it."

    Most days, I don't feel like a writer, either. At least, not in the way that I thought "being a writer" would feel like. I think stealing those little bubbles of time to write is genius - and guess what, that's what writers do. :)

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