Day: October 18, 2019

I was going to try for seven. There is something fantastic about the number seven that just resonates with me. Something universal. However, I knew I only had ten minutes on the clock, so I went for organization first. Two per minute was the idea, but I’ve burned a minute already…Which leads me into the first tip:

Plan Voraciously
Writers who wish to make a living at the craft will quickly find themselves working on multiple projects. These might be small things–writing copy for advertisers or proofing another writer’s work perhaps. Still these projects are the bread and butter of the industry and keep us fed and clothed. In order to do a bu ch of things at once with any level of efficiency you need to have a plan. You ought to print it. You ought to print multiple copies and keep them at every workstation, on the fridge, and anywhere else your eyes will rest for a considerable amount of time.

Write Voraciously
By now you are sensing a theme. Voraciousness is the writers only useful mode. You gotta write everyday. I don’t mean 10 minutes on a blog either. That ought to be warmup. The real work is the words after. Are you the writer who wants to write for an hour and hope the words come? Are you the writer who writes until they hit a specific word count? I try to be the word count guy. I’ve spent the last six months or more failing hard at it, but that failure and what I will learn from it is why I will succeed.

Fail Voraciously
Writers are not remembered for the number or rejections they get but for the successes. Nobody outside of the editing industry truly knows how many times you’ve been turned down. You know. You ought to have a list longer than your body of the number of times you’ve submitted work to places. If you are not putting yourself out there then you have zero chance of people reading your work. You have to submit in order to have a chance to be read. Yes, that means you’ll get a lot of rejections, but that is all part of getting tough.

Take Risks
Don’t let every story be expected try new angles, POVs, character actions. Do what you are afraid to do in writing until you are comfortable trying anything on paper.

Crap. Only made 4. Voracious fail.

I need to get back to this being a fiction blog. I need to get back to telling my partner stories. I’ve been talking about this healing and return to words for a very long time and it has been happening in fits and starts and, also, very slowly. At this point I’ve done an awful lot of complaining in comparison to actually moving forward, so maybe I ought to just get to it.

At present I am engaged in a number of teaching opportunities and haven’t sat down to really organize my time the way I want to. Part of writing well is being organized. That is clearly my weak point. I can be extremely organized for a little bit of time, which can be effective so long as I continue to stay organized on that week to week basis. I haven’t sustained that, but I am continuing the practice.

Truthfully this evening’s work was not to be about the shortcomings of me but about being proud and grateful of the opportunities put before me and my ability to capitalize on said opportunities. I am being blessed and I am learning how to meet these opportunities. I cannot be more grateful of the chances I have to write, teach, and work with incredible people. This is a boost to my happiness and existence. Life is good when I look around and actually see where things are at.