Sunday, November 20, 2011
A Revelation via Twitter
I know not everyone on this ship Tweets, but I do. Twitter is the modern day news ticker. The London riots? Heard about them first on Twitter. The Occupy Wall Street stuff? Yep, Twitter again. It's instant. Unfiltered. No delay. No waiting for some media outlet to shove the facts through their spin cycle and regurgitate their interpretation of events. Twitter is NOW.
It's also a direct connection to industry professionals as well as fellow writers, and downright entertaining. But what it's been lately is a wakeup call.
This is the nugget of truth that hit me last week, thanks to Twitter. I'd say sit down before reading further but doubt this will come as a shock to anyone.
You ready? Here we go.
The only difference between every published writer and me (or anyone not yet published) is that the published writers write.
I know. Earth shattering, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of published authors with more talent than I. But there are some published authors with less. Regardless, their perseverance and determination is what makes the difference.No "I didn't get around to writing this month." No "I wanted to write but Idol was on." Not even an "I had the laptop open but then I had to fold the clothes." If you're like me ,you've used all of these excuses and countless others.
On Twitter, writers push each other with sprints (#1k1hr), squeeze out one more page in that fifteen minutes before the kids get home, and often "go dark" when a deadline is looming. No matter what, they write.
I realize it's a bit early for resolutions (and at the reading of that word you have all jumped overboard), but I'm going to make one. 2012 will be the year of no excuses. Will life attempt to get in our way? You betcha. Will we let it? Absolutely not!
But let's be honest. Life isn't what gets in our way. WE get in our way. In 2012 (or starting now, that's even better) we get out of our own way and put words on the page. I don't care what they are. Need a smaller challenge with quicker results to get that feeling of accomplishment? Write a short story. Entangled Publishing is starting a short story line called FLIRT and open to submissions of 10K-15K words. I dusted off an old story and sent it in last week. Worst they can do is say no.
Tired of writing the same old stuff? Fine. Write a memoir. Or a cookbook. Hell, write a manifesto. Just write. We set only two goals. (I know, another nasty word, but hang with me.)
Make writing a habit and make sure it's fun. Not easy, but fun. What say you?!
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54 comments:
I believe this might be my favorite blog of the year. Even if it does mention Twitter. :)
Awesome resolutions. I'm game. Writing is fun--not easy, but fun. I just need to remember the fun more. And the more you write, the more you'll write. It's true.
Thanks for the kick in the ass.
More tomorrow. I should probably finish up and go to bed.
I want to write for fun again...but I realize I get sucked into too much otherside-of-the-coin baggage that slows me down and makes it hard to just enjoy the process...
I need to write in a cocoon. I mean, sure, twitter, and FB and yahoo groups and all of that are distracting, but they haven't gotten in my way before this last year.
I'm working on it. Dumped most of my yahoo groups, linked my FB to twitter so I could do both at the same time... And yes, I'm considering a real writing schedule... I have so many irons in the fire for the next few months and I'm paddling crazily to get ahead of the tidal wave heading my way...
I need to write some new stuff. I need to edit some old stuff. I need to do so many things that aren't really writing! But I also need to publish more. And promote more.
And while I'm at it, I think I'll run for political office, to just fill up my spare time...
If there is a plan to make this work, I'm all ears!
I think that you need to get some rhythm.
Reserve a time of day for writing and make it sacrosanct, like you would for a new boy friend.
Include some treats (bottle of favourite tipple) just to make absolutely sure that you enjoy yourself.
Then with nothing to distract you, WRITE!
Take care though .... having fun can be addictive! LOL
So, so true, Terri, and what an excellent reminder. I'm often so tempted to throw in the towel on writing and just say "oh, well, I tried." But I know, I KNOW, I would regret that. I am a writer, and therefore I must write.
I've been thinking about my daily schedule, and how I can get in another 30-45 minutes of writing if I push myself during the day at work and steal my lunch break.
Today, I will do that. I'll let you know how many words I wrote at 2:00!
Reserve a time of day for writing and make it sacrosanct, like you would for a new boy friend.
This is so true, it's not even funny. *LOL*
This is being way better received than I expected. LOL! I was certain there'd be a mutiny (can you mutiny against a Bo'sun?) and I'd be thrown off the ship.
Huzzah to all the enthusiasm! I've kicked my ass in gear this year but I need to kick it into overdrive if I want to make this happen. And it's true, the more I write, the more I like what I write, and the more fun I have with it. I see writers on Twitter who will post their favorite line written during the day. And you can tell they're enjoying what they're doing.
Not that writers don't tweet that it's HARD on one day or they've written themselves into a corner, but they bitch and go back to writing. Or so it seems.
Chance - If I was closer we'd sit down and figure this stuff out. I think once you find the promo that you enjoy and stick with it, you'll get in a groove and it won't feel like such a chore. Definitely a good idea to get off those yahoo groups. If you started your own for your readers, that's one thing. But to advertise on a bunch of others? I don't get the point. That would make me crazy.
Nah, we needed the kick in the ass. No mutiny. Plus I've been reading a craft book (I know, I know) where it talks about breaking the thought-feeling-behavior pattern, that can keep you from writing. (Lots of fake it till you make it stuff. Nothing I haven't heard necessarily, but good for motivation.) I wrote a few pages last night, but I've completely failed Nano. I don't mind though; I completely enjoyed my vacation.
I also enjoyed the Twilight movie, which was so gory that I buried my head during the bloody parts and Pam buried her head during the wolf parts. Good times. There are some movies you should just see with friends.
Oh, I found something, Bo'sun, that made me think of you. I will try to mail it before 2020.
Hellie - I was certain you'd throw something at me so your love for the blog is most exciting. I've decided to write what comes to me. Got an idea during the drive this weekend for a 10-15K story. Romantic comedy about a single mom with a crazy life who gets suckered into coaching her daughter's softball team then falls for one of her player's dads. That's my new December project (once this GH entry is in the mail.)
Hal - You've got the toughest situation schedule-wise. You and Marn. I used to begrudge the idea of giving up my weekend or my lunch hour (not that I take a lunch hour) but when the end result (a contract) started to feel real, it became more "I want to write" instead of "I have to write."
Anything that is a have-to makes me cranky, so that change in thinking helped a lot. LOL!
Q is bringing the genius, as usual. LOL! I've found writing in the evening works for me. I need to decompress for a couple hours after work, get dinner over and some cleaning done, then I can sit down and concentrate. And thanks to OnDemand I don't even worry about missing my shows. I just catch up on them over the weekend or something.
Making sure the time you set aside is a time that really works for you is important. I know a lot of writers get up and write at 4 or 5am. There's now way my brain would go for that. Not in a million years. LOL!
Something for me?! Oh goodie. But that reminds me, I found out this weekend my family is coming down for Christmas. ALL of my family. O_o
No idea where I'm going to put all these people. LOL! (I know, odd connection. But a gift made me think of Xmas and there you go...)
I should read some of these craft books I have. I must be up to a dozen or more now and have yet to read any of them all the way through.
And don't knock yourself out over NaNo. I know a lot of people consider it motivation to get your butt in the chair, but to me it sounds more like running the Boston Marathon without training for it. Like I'd roll off my couch and be able to do that. Uh...no.
(Which reminds me, y'all hear that TWO runners died during a marathon last week? I can't imagine training for that and not even surviving it. Crazy.)
Romantic comedy about a single mom with a crazy life who gets suckered into coaching her daughter’s softball team then falls for one of her player’s dads.
Sounds adorable!! And a bit "write what you know" with "write what you'd want" at the end. :) Assuming the dads of a softball team are hot. And ripped. Like this hero will undoubtedly be. :)
Chance, you're part of a yahoo group that promotes OTHER people? I get that you're about sharing the love, but lord, woman, there's only so many hours in the day. You think Nora is part of yahoo groups? No. She's writing. You hear it all the time on blogs and Facebook about authors who promote so much they forget the writing and it kicks them in the ass. Hang in there.
I know, I should have added "sound familiar" into the comment. LOL! But this woman is a widow, owns a hair salon, and has a mother sliding into dimentia. Of course the hero will be ripped and hot, he IS a cop after all. And a former soldier.
I am taking write what you know to new levels. If only I didn't have to add all the fictional twists to make it actually interesting.
I know a place, Bo'sun, it's called MOTEL 6. For your sanity and your family's, it's probably best to stick them in a hotel. Or better yet, leave them at your house, and you sleep at the hotel.
Yeah, see, it's stories like that that make me think exercise is way overrated. No thank you.
Okay, I've been gone a week, so I better go back to the emails, but I'll check in later to see if everyone is still singing about rainbows and unicorns. Nice to see everyone so happy on a Monday, isn't it? Must be that pre-turkey nirvana or something.
I stayed at a Motel 6 Saturday night (thank you Vols for having a game ON the day I was in Knoxville and therefore selling out EVERY FREAKING HOTEL!) Forgot they don't have complimentary hair dryers. I was not looking my best on that drive home yesterday. LOL!
I can stick a couple of them at my cousin's house. Maybe. Would be funny to make my homophobic cousin's husband deal with having a gay house guest.
;)
Would be funny to make my homophobic cousin’s husband deal with having a gay house guest.
NICE. Way to spread the Christmas love. *LOL* Misery loves company is what that action says. *LOL*
Hey, this could lead to some Christmas time enlightenment. Would be good for him! Though I doubt the party in question would stay there anyway.
I see. You're the Ghost of Christmas Present, are you? *LOL* And he's the Scrooge? *LOL*
The party would stay in a house where the guy sleeps with a gun under his pillow? Unlikely. *LOL*
I forgot about the guns. HOW could I forget about the guns?? Though there's also a 150lb Rottweiller. Talk about a safe house.
Talk about dying an early death. Fine. I'll throw in some man candy to get you all motivated a different way. Is this dude pretty or what?
http://loreleijames.com/blog/?p=2660&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I'm pretty sure he is now the official stand in for my new cop hero. Which really just gives me an excuse to put that picture up on my wall.
For motivating the muse, of course.
I literally went "YEAH!" at the end of this blog. I think this is exactly what I need to do too. Stop thinking about why I shouldn't be writing(/editing/revising) and just do it. Push push push, leave the rest of the stuff at the door.
Great blog, Bo'sun. I think you're right. Published writers write. :)
I also think that the advice of putting it before other things is important too. Writing has to be one of the top priorities, if you intend to publish and stay published. More important than the XFactor or what's going on on Glee. More important even than keeping in touch with some acquaintances. I've actually lost touch with some people because I haven't had the time to devote to staying in touch. I keep my support system and the positive influences in my life close and have kind of left the rest fall away.
That's the reaction I was hoping for, Marn! And I'll admit, the fact my paycheck isn't stretching as far as it used to adds to this sense of urgency to get words on the page.
But I wouldn't do this if I wasn't enjoying it. The money would be an awesome and much needed bonus (even just a little from short stories) but getting the stories out there is the ultimate goal. Can't get anything out there if I don't write it.
Oh, that IS pretty. Thank you, I needed a mid-morning boost! Though the cake worked too. *LOL*
See! Another benefit of Twitter. LOL! I find links like that one!
Americans. Not "American's." OMG! I abused the apostrophe! I'm SO ashamed. *dons hair shirt*
We need to do a pirate challenge of turning off the TV from a certain time to another and writing. I was at my WW meeting and there was a statistic that American's watched 28 hours of TV a week, I think. And while everyone laughed, including myself, I got to thinking about it and was like, "Shit, I think I might actually be the average American here." Imagine if we were using our 4 hours a day for writing. That'd be at least 10 pages a day. A DAY!
I don't watch any shows regularly now. Purposely avoided any new show when the season started. I catch Castle, Glee, and Top Chef OnDemand since I turned in my DVR to save money. And I was raised by a TV addict so that's huge for me. In 2-3 hrs a night I can write 3-5 pages. I don't know how fast you're writing to get down 10 in 4 hrs. LOL!
I can usually write 4 pages in an hour, if it's a good hour. So I was giving myself a break with the 10, if I had 4 hours. My attention span isn't that long though. I think that's the problem. I think I have to write the WHOLE time, when even when you're at work, you should take a minute or two break every 1/2 hour to be the best productive. Problem is that when I do that with writing, the 2 minute break becomes a half hour on facebook.
Also, a lot of what I write is dialogue, hence why I can usually do 4 pages an hour, I think.
I just write the scene I'm writing and sometimes I hit a point where I need to stare off in the distance and figure out the right word (or search Thesaurus.com) or often I go back and read aloud from the start of the scene to get moving again. Thinking is part of the writing! And thinking is permitted. Though I've been known to play Words with Friends WHILE writing. That kind of slows me down.
No, if I stare off too long at the wall, trying to think of the right word or what to say next, I'll just decide to go to bed or find something to eat. *LOL* I should do jumping jacks or something--that way I'll have to think of something pretty damn fast unless I want to do jumping jacks all night.
Whatever works!!
I should do jumping jacks. Just because.
I think my goal will be to go offline every afternoon, as much as possible. As I've whined before, the Internet devours huge amounts of time and creative energy that would otherwise go to writing or art.
If I can break the Internet habit, I know I'll get more writing done.
It's funny, Pat, because I sit online all day at work I don't feel the need to be on it at night. I still have my email open, but that's it. Okay, sometimes Twitter too, but no blog trolling or anything else.
I'm not sure how to organize my time. But I'm thinking a timer of somesort will at least get me devoting a set amount of hours to writing, just writing. More than likely, it won't be at the same time everyday...I'm just not that regular about anything!
An hour of writing pirate power... We could synchronize our timepieces...
Heh. My problem isn't being online "at night." That's because at night, I'm spending time with my husband, making dinner, watching movies, killing things on Xbox. The problem is when I get home from the part time job (which I hate and I'm dying to quit) in the afternoon. I don't feel very creative or motivated, so I start fiddling on the web. And hours go by...and hubby comes home and no writing has been done.
Chance - That would work but it's syncronizing the time zones that would get tricky.
Pat - I see the problem there. Any chance you can quit soon? Maybe replace with a more enjoyable part-time job? And this is another reason it's good for me as a single woman. Kiddo is good reading or doing homework, but I do make sure we do stuff on the weekends.
I said was going to write from 1:15 - 2:00 today, over my "lunch break."
409 words, bitches!
There you go!!! If you did that all week you'd have 200 words you didn't have on Sunday. Not bad!!
Eh, should be too hard...I'm the only west coaster... You and the Cpt are only 1 hour apart, right? I have no day job, so I could do it most anytime.
Now, if one of us was in Australia...then it gets tricky!
OT: I have to share this because I thought the explanation was so cool!
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/17/8845864-why-you-forgot-what-you-were-just-doing
Go, Hal, it's your birthday, go Hal, it's your birthday....
I'm glad science has finally figured that out but his examples are cracking me up. LOL! First off, no one is going to forget they want a snack because, hello, food. And the idea of holding your hands in the shape of anything is just weird. I'd get to the kitchen, look at my hand and think, "Why am I holding my fingers like this? How stupid."
I've actually gone to the kitchen and forgotten why I'd gone, but that just goes to show I was not eating because I was actually hungry. I just wanted something that "tasted" like something, that I suddenly got an idea for.
Holding my hand like a bowl would not help me either though. *LOL*
And usually I go to another room to locate keys. How do I hold my hand like a shape of keys?
I have forgotten what I'm looking for and try to "go back" in my mind to what I was doing last (which usually prompts what I'm looking for now) and I'll do a bit of charades until I get to the thing I've forgotten. Just to save myself the trip back to the other room to recall what I've forgotten.
You could walk in the room saying "vroom vroom vroom vroom..."
"Pat – I see the problem there. Any chance you can quit soon? Maybe replace with a more enjoyable part-time job?"
Honestly? There's no such thing. I hate working. Yes, I'm immature. After about two years, any job becomes mind rapingly boring and I'm praying to be fired. Ironic since I currently work in a church.
I'm not cut out for regular employment. Ultimately, I'm just going to have to quit and hubby and I will have to figure out a way to deal with the finances.
I can see where that would be problematic. LOL! And why working for yourself or being independently wealthy would come in handy. I'm good with work provided I don't have to deal with the general public. That's where I run into trouble.
I'm sorry, but that article just put in mind of the dirty ways one could hold a hand to remind self of all sorts of things...
mind. out. of. gutter. not.
so I had to jump right back into work stuff after I finished writing, but THANKS! I'm so proud of myself! And strangely, not only did the writing itself go better than I expected, but it totally changed my motivation for work-stuff the rest of the day, because I knew I was working around that schedule.
Terri, I think you may have created a monster!
Yay!!! I'll take credit for that! (Or the blame, either way works for me. LOL!)
Chance - You've been on this boat way too long.
Hm, don't tweet. Haven't even attempted to use Twitter. I don't really even use my facebook account. But I have to admit, writing for the sake of writing is fun. I have so much fun during NaNo and I can't quite figure out how that doesn't translate into my writing through the rest of the year.
You don't have to use Twitter, Sin. That's just where I finally got this revelation. I share it with you so you don't have to tweet to get it.
:)
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