Nobody Wants to Wait 10 Years for Your Story

Everyone has projects they would like to get to, but life seems to get in the way. Sometimes that takes the form of procrastination. On the rare occasion, it's because you truly have been too busy. (Too busy is often code for, poor time management, or prioritization based on the needs of other people.)

Most often a project lays dormant because of fear, uncertainty or doubt. Can it be finished? What will it look like? Will you like it enough? What if no one else likes it? These are all reasonable fears, but they hold you hostage, and that is unreasonable. If you're going to feel those emotions anyway, doesn't it make sense to get them over with?

I know, sometimes it takes time to erect a statue or build a new park. Somethings can’t be rushed. Ideas need to ferment, and the Muses need to sing in perfect harmony, but for how long ... really?

I have no shortage of half-baked prose sucking up disk space and file cabinets, but I'm talking about the projects you’re actively working on. There are countless tales about authors who have worked on their novel for years, sometimes they finish it on their deathbed and sometimes death beats them to their final period.

When I hear those stories I often wonder, what the hell took them so long? What got in the way? Sometimes a war, often depression. Believe me, I get it. Debilitating things in life can keep you from working what you tell everyone you want to be working on, but let's be brutally honest, nobody wants to wait ten years for your book. You're supposed be a storyteller, not a tease.

If you write, write the damn thing. If you're an artist, paint the damn thing. If you’ve got a passion project, finish it. Otherwise, what good is it to the rest of the world? You undoubtedly had plans for it to begin with, what happened?

It's now generally accepted that productivity helps to create happiness. So, it stands to reason that those who wallow over the lack of progress in their project, primarily due to their unproductive behavior, won’t be particularly happy. To me, this is one of life’s tragedies. You’ve got enough of a gift, skill, passion, or maybe all three, to have gotten something started. Now finish it. Stop with your excuses (see 10 Best Excuses Worksheet) Keep your commitments to yourself and move on.

Simplified To Do List

Sometimes we make things too complicated. 


Here's a simplified to do list if you're feeling lost.

Wake up.


Get up.


Do something to help another person.


Do the prior thing three more times.


Do something for yourself
Sleep well.

Do Something

Thinking is great, but often overrated.

Some of the best minds create theoretical solutions to insurmountable problems.

So what.

It proves little or consequence and achieves nothing of substance.

The ones who take action and responsibility, get things done.

They may not succeed right away, but they assuredly have not failed. The failure are those who see a wrong but do not attempt to fix it, or when they feel inadequate to meet a challenge choose to give up.

Thinking should never be abandoned, but it does occasionally need to be tempered.

If you wrote every month like you did in November, how productive would you be?

Many people participated in NaNoWriMo this year, the writing project that challenges you to put 50,000 words down within 30 days. I was pleased to have reached over 60,000 this year.

Many accomplished more. Many accomplished much less. And most writers in the world didn’t participate at all.

I find the deadline and daily word count goal to be exceptionally motivating. Others find the whole thing too maddening.

Naturally there are many who had the best of intention but a sickness, or family trouble, or something else stood in their way. It happens. All the time.

Look at what you wrote in the month of November. I’m not talking about the quality of what you wrote, I’m talking about the volume. What if you repeated your performance all year long? How much more productive would you be?

Maybe you wrote a page a day and it took you thirty minutes. Maybe you wrote only on weekends and punched out 10-15,000 words. Every writer is different. There’s not a right way or a wrong way. The only thing that writers have in come is that they write. They carve out x amount of time and produce x number of pages. What were your x’s and what’s keeping you from extending them through the next year?

If you invest a half hour and write 250 words a day you can have over 87,000 words for just over 14 days worth of work. What can you do with 87,000 words?

If you already write with any regularity you can probably write more per day and at a faster speed. So pick your own numbers. It’s your art. The thing is, if you keep it inside, no one is going to see it.

Maybe secretly, that’s what some people want. To be thought of as a writer. How many more years do you want to wait for your first novel, or script, or book? How many years do you want to be thought of as a “new” writer?

Writers write because they enjoy writing. It’s a priority for them, guilt be damned.

Whatever you did in November, do again. Add more words, or pull back a few if you’re tired. You’ve already proven what you’re capable of achieving. Keep your momentum.

they and me can again be We

They can gawk.

They can mock.

They can swear,

and blame,

and fail to understand.

They can fear.

They can demonize.

They can protect what they know.

They can try to keep their status quo, 

with ignorance or denial.

They can rouse their forces,

weaponized beyond proportion.

They can spray the eyes or pull the hair 

of mothers or daughters or elders,

who will no longer sit.

They can crack the heads of unarmed soldiers 

who, for a decade risked their lives in far-off lands 

to preserve the promise of days like these.

They can speak from two sides, 

pretending they don’t betray the constitution,

or morality, or commonsense.

They can tear down tents, disperse crowds 

and destroy property of a free people.

They can invoke the cry of safety

to trump any law.

They can herd the young and old like cattle,

or throw men over barricades, 

like worn-out mattresses. 

They can disinfect parks sullied by occupation,

but not the hearts of an educated nation. 

They can say they'll fix the wrongs.

They can bargain for more time,

in hopes bygones will be forgot.

They will not.

They can try to silence what's already been heard.

They can try to obfuscate what's already been seen.

They can try to blame the odor on others, 

like children who hide the stink.

They can try to ignore the taste of justice 

that brews in cafés and cafeterias and classrooms 

and the places where debate is still safe and welcome.

They can feel satisfied when streets are cleared 

and they think things return to normal.

They can throw money at any problem,

because it is easier to find than good judgement. 

They could find a cure in the sea of faces,

that hold the common man, woman and child,

doing uncommon things for the good of each other.

Then they, and me,

can again, be we.

And we, can overcome anything.

Is Your Writing Better Than Sex?

The Great Writer must compete for Attention and Induce Action

Writing is very personal. It’s a seemingly magical method of capturing images and thoughts from your imagination and putting them on the page in a way that very few other disciplines can. Painters, musicians, sculptors, architects, maybe engineers and extemporaneous public speakers are perhaps the only vocations that demand the inspiration that comes from within go straight to the blank canvass before them. This means they may need to throw away more of their creations than others because they are unfit for public consumption. Everyone should study their craft to continually improve, but the writer has a unique challenge in that they must compete with the rest of the world for the readers attention.

A painting can hang unobtrusively on the wall or be visited in a gallery. Portable music has become the personal soundtrack of many people’s life. A building, regardless of the fluidity of it’s lines, does not move.

To be read, the writer needs to compel the reader to make the time for them. The reader always gets to choose when to pick up your book, or fire up the Kindle and read your work. As a writer, you have no control over whether you will be carried along with your reader, or left on the nightstand, relegated to the bathroom, or placed on the coffee table like an ego stroking trophy for guests to see and enjoy.

Your work has to compete for attention against screaming toddlers, the television, Facebook and countless other distractions.

As a writer your work should endeavor to be your reader’s travel companion and lover. It, (meaning your work, and since writing is personal, it, meaning you) should be called upon during long waits in line, aboard flights and ferries, trains and busses. You should be brought to bed at night where you are chosen over sex or sleep, for at least for a little while longer. If your writing isn’t at that level you will lose. If you achieve that tier of preference, you can be considered a very good writer. To be a great writer, you need to do more.

The great writer doesn’t settle for winning the competition over preference. The great writer induces the reader to think about and do things differently. Perhaps to be a better parent, or to be discerning over which television channel to watch, which websites to visit, which airline to fly, or which revolution to fight. The great writer must seduce and challenge the reader. The great writer, leads with their words. 

You don’t have to be a great writer, but you should try.

Writing Yet?

With October on the horizon many writers realize there’s less than 100 days left in the year. Maybe they better get started on something. Starting something is great. Finishing is better.

If you’ve got a writing goal make a clear distinction between your goals and your wishes. You don't want to catch wish-itis. Goals are concrete. They are specific, motivating, attainable, relevant and time based. Candidly, I think potentially unattainable is fine. I prefer the people who are over ambitious to those who are underwhelmed. Their hopes and dreams may end in disappointment, but at least they didn’t start that way. When you’re committed you can achieve more than you think.

Maybe you’re a procrastinator. That’s okay, but right now you need to write now. So schedule your procrastination time for later. Don’t wait for inspiration. Inspiration doesn't sit around all day hoping to be found. It does its thing with or without you. It doesn’t really care and it’s not thinking about you so stop wasting your time. If you should happen to meet, give it a happy hug like a little seen friend and keep writing.

To me, a writer without the means to write is like a non-writer with the means. So do whatever gyrations you need to do to before you write, then you’ve got to write. Until then, you're just thinking. Thinkers are great, but they don’t get things done. Doers get things done. 

Some writers become overwhelmed with ideas. Blessed with the curse of imagination they let them float by like dandelion seeds. Pluck a few ideas that strike you and plant them on the page or bury them in your notebook. After a week, see what blooms then use all your resources to nurture that. Let everything else become noise.

Still not writing? Try this formula: 

Day 1 - Write something.

Day 2 - Write more. 

Day 3 - Write better. 

Repeat.

Eschew the pseudo experts who tell you how to create. You know how. Now, you must do. 

Write often or little, 

Because you can 

Or because you must.

Write of silly things that move the world.

Or serious things that must be stopped.

Write to educate and entertain

Others or yourself.

Write for the pride that comes with seeing

Your writing on another’s shelf.

Write to record your feelings, thoughts or fears.

Write in a way that brings the stoics to tears.

Write because your gifted 

And you’ve a perspective to share.

Write the things that others would never dare.

Write. You need no more excuses.

Write Anyway

There is a growing contingent of people who believe writer's block is the writer's fancy way of making laziness or procrastination sound more "arty" and even admirable. It's a kind of creative martyrdom.

"I want to write...I need to write...I just can't do it right now. The muse's are being too cruel."

Sounds good. But it makes me yawn.

Yes, anyone who has had the urge to write has from time to time been vexed by the blank page, or even the next paragraph. Sometimes it feels like you've run out of things to say. You're washed over by a wave of anxiety that maybe you're done, there's nothing left in you. Perhaps you feel an anger. A wall has been erected separating you from your creative genius, denying you the wit and spellbinding prose you imagined. I suppose you could call THAT writer's block. The thing is, it takes more than that to stop a writer. A writer writes anyway. It might be crap, it might be lofty. It doesn't matter, because it's written. That's better progress than all the bemoaning coming from those who haven't spilled any ink.

A writer writes.

That's not to say things don't keep writer's from writing, but that's always the writer's choice. An argument with a loved one can ruin your day, or it can inspire a character's rage. Feeling sullen or ill can keep you from the keyboard, or that keyboard may be your therapy.

I'm not interested in people who say they write, but don't. To me the one who struggles over which words to cut or add, or feels pain over tone or tempo is a far more engaging person than one who laments that the writing gods aren't favoring them today.

Give me a break.

A writer writes.

I've fallen down on my novel. I've not picked it up to edit it since that dreadful chapter twelve got under my skin. I'm not blocked. I'm chicken shit. I'm a damn good writer and could fix it in thirty minutes, if I sat down and faced it. Instead I've written other things. Poems, business articles, newsletters. I've not stopped writing. I've stopped working on that project, and it's pissing me off. That's my responsibility. Not the kids who want to play, not the loved one who provoked a draining argument, not the economy which fills me with financial tension. No, righties, it's not even Obama's fault. It's mine.

A writer writes, that's the thing that makes a writer unique to everyone else. So don't be a hack. The next time you bleat about not writing, at least put it in an email so you will have written something.

Please Ban My Books

I saw this article pass through my Facebook stream today, about a Catholic School Student who runs a secret banned books library from their locker. CLICK HERE TO READ


What struck me, besides the fact that it's sorta difficult to call something secret if I'm reading about it on the web, is the fact the people STILL think banning a book is an intelligent thing to do. Banning something is one of the best PR moves an author could hope for. It stimulates curiosity. We should all be so lucky.


Let's think back in history when banning books, or burning them to illustrate one's fear over the written word and expression of ideas has worked effectively. It doesn't. When you demonize something you don't understand you highlight your ignorance. It's weird to me that people still attempt to do it. 


It's also strange to me that kids are passing tangible books around, like they were in a ... what's that thing called .... where you can borrow books .... not Amazon's Netflix idea, that other thing ... oh yeah, a freaking library. A FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY which any one can visit (though in some cities it may be only open between 1pm and 2:45pm every other Tuesday).


Nearly every "classic" book can be found online, also for free. So what is it that causes kids to want to read, even it it's off of pages instead or a screen?


Adults who tell them they can't.


Adults who moan and groan about too much sex and violence on TV and in video games.


Tell them to read a book.


Adults have befuddled me my whole life. Sometimes I wish they would grow up.

The Writer's Demise?

Based on a few thought provoking articles I've read recently there are two schools of thought on the publishing industry. One being that it's rapidly going in the direction of the recording industry, which one could interpret as more "freedom" for the artist. The other camp points to the fact that the majority of services that are making self publishing easily accessible to today's writer are run by huge corporations who, let's be honest, do not generally have the writer's interests as their central focus (unless by interest you mean money.) Either way lends itself to the premise that the fall of the publishing industry will be quickly followed by the elimination of the writer as a profession.

How could that be? In the democratized world of the Internet were everyone now has the ability to write and publish their own content, it makes the practice a little less special. Not only does it take the mystery out of the process, it also shrinks the cachet. Wearing a black turtleneck and sauntering into a party as a writer isn't so impressive to people anymore. In fact the caterer and valet probably have better blogs than you and probably write more often.

So does that make writing as a profession go away? No, but could it be less valuable since everyone has the capacity to do it? Maybe in the short term. There's actually a movement to halt some writing and publishing because there's too much out there and much of it isn't very good. The real rubbish is that belief. Telling a writer to stop writing akin to telling someone to stop breathing. Sure, they can try for a little while, but they turn purple and irritated very quickly. While it's true there's a good amount of junk out there, there always has been. I would guess the percentage is the same, though the numbers are larger. Let's go with the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the writing you're reading is probably mediocre or worse, and twenty percent is probably pretty good. (that may even hold true for this post).

What's going through transformation is the fall of the gatekeepers. In traditional publishing there are filters, from selected agents, to a cadre of specialty editors who move writers from good to great. Without those gatekeepers you see things unfiltered, rife with errors. You also come across genius and ingenuity that just a few years ago would have been squelched. It's like panning for gold. You could use some help deciding which stream to step into, but you have to get your own hands wet to find some treasure.

So how does the writer now stand out? I suspect the same way as they always have. Be a better writer. Work on the craft as well as your passion, everyday. Also remember, just because your writing is good there's no guarantee it will be read. The word is full of people, but many of them are still illiterate. That's why today's writer has to be professional. Not only in the discipline of writing, but also in the skills of marketing, negotiating, finance and public interactions. The writer shouldn't allow themselves to be mockable. Being a professional to everyone, particularly readers, will ensure the writer's profession remains an important role in our society.