Writers-in-Progress

The Aptitude for Gratitude

One question: how grateful are you for your ability to write?

Like most things, we take our ability to write for granted. We have a love/hate relationship with it and, let's be frank, most of the time is spent complaining about how it isn't working, or even that the well is dry (my personal favorite phrase to indicate that I think I'll never write anything good again).

Try something different right now: give thanks. I know it's a bit early for it, Thanksgiving is two months away, but why not make it a monthly, perhaps weekly, dare I suggest daily habit to take a few moments to think of how much you love to write, how much it adds to your life to see stories where other people don't, to have your own voice (even if you haven't figured it out yet, don't worry - it's lurking about in there somewhere), how good it feels to write something that touches someone and has meaning for them, and be grateful for all you have created (even the horrors, and the ones you burned), and all you will create.

It's not just enough to have an attitude of gratitude, a phrase we hear a lot. You must have the aptitude for gratitude - meaning that you don't just take a moment to be thankful, you have the attitude all the time. This takes practice and patience. For example: whenever you get stuck, or your writing comes out all wrong, be grateful, these are signs that you're trying too hard to control your piece (I say this all the time, I know, but it bears repeating). Let go a little bit, ask your Higher Writing Self to figure out how to fix the problem and then go to the movies or for a walk or take a break for a few days. The answer will come. And when it does, guess what you do...? Right - be grateful.

Gratitude is positive energy. It can't possibly screw anything up to feel positive about your writing. If it does, write a story or poem about it!

Here's your exercise: take out a piece of paper and write down all the reasons you're grateful for your writing. Glitz it up with color or whatever, if you like, but make sure to tack it up over your desk where you can see it every day. Add to the list whenever possible!!

What You Think is What You Get

I'm a big believer in the power of thinking your way to a good day and a good life. We can't control everything, but we can act in our lives rather than react as if we're victims or puppets or pawns. It's a little more work (lots easier to lie around complaining about how the world is against us, less risk there too), but worth it.

This applies double to our writing lives. Decide today that the world wants to and will hear your voice, somehow, somewhere, and get writing. Tell the stories you want to tell.

There's plenty of room and success for everyone. If you don't get in line for your share, you don't get a turn at the top.

Here's a quote to get you going:

"...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, i recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it."

W. Mitchell

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The Need for Speed

I just realized, after I hit page 95 last night on the new novel, Inventory, that I've written that in two weeks. That's quite a record, even for me (the first draft of my first novel took four months).

For a few moments I wondered if that meant that the writing could be awful, and I'd discover that in the revision process, but I brushed that off for two reasons:

1) I'm having a marvelous time doing it. Little bits of information and signs about where to head next keep popping up, as they always do if you just stay open and follow every lead. If something unusual occurs to you or jumps into your line of vision - go after it. Examine it. See if it has anything to say to you about your characters or your story.

2) I'm not struggling. One doesn't have to struggle and agonize over every word, sentence, and page, to write a successful first draft. Often when that's the case, it means you are trying to control the story/characters when they should come through you instead. Yes, you may end up cutting out large sections and realizing that some parts need to be completely rewritten (I cut out 300 pages of the second novel - ouch!), but you wouldn't have been able to make that determination if you hadn't written it in the first place! Most of the time we have to get things down on paper to SEE them before we can know whether or not they work. Then, the extra terrific part of that is that, what's wrong with the bit you need to get rid of will point you directly to how to fix it, to what will work - if you allow it to.

The pace is probably going to slow at some point, but I won't worry then either. I'm keeping to my commitment to listen to the story and write at least 4 days a week. Each day I pay attention to how I'm feeling about the book and go from there. If it feels like I need a day to rest and think, then I take it. If I feel pushed to turn on the computer and pull out my notes, I do that. If I'm not sure, I skim the last few pages and see if anything comes up. If nothing does, I consider it a rest/think day, and make any notes that come to me while I'm doing other things.

Do things at your own pace and rather than impose a final deadline on yourself, set small deadlines. When you break them - reset them. They are just something to work towards, not do or die.

And keep asking yourself this question: Am I Enjoying Writing This Book?

If you're not, ask yourself what would help you do just that. Frost says: "No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader." Are you making discoveries and getting them into the manuscript? Are you laughing and crying and puzzling and searching right along with your characters?

If you don't feel it, your readers won't either.

Insist on Yourself

"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession...Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much."

Ralph Waldo Emerson