We feel like writing because we're writing. #amwriting #writingcommunity #WriterWednesday #NaNoWriMo
"We don't write because we feel like it.
We feel like it because we write."
-- Seth Godin, The Practice
Let's say that you have a chapter to write in your long running serial fiction or maybe you've signed up for the #NaNoWriMo challenge.
You have to put words on the page RIGHT NOW! If you delay in your NaNoWriMo challenge, you may not finish the challenge of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. If you don't write a chapter in your serial fiction, you'll wake up to a hundred angry emails -- plus, you won't look very professional, and all of that.
How can you guarantee that you're able to write?
I have quite a bit of experience with this. I've written Denver Cereal through major surgery, computer crashes, illness, death of both of my parents, caring for my dog who had dementia, holidays, birthdays, fat days, thin days, head injuries, and most major life upheaval. No matter what has gone on in the world, no matter how exhausted I might be at the time, no matter where I am on the planet, I have written 3,000 words in the Denver Cereal every week.
I'm able to write the Denver Cereal because I'm never not writing the Denver Cereal.
The muse for Denver Cereal strikes while I'm writing. The characters are willing to dance, play, evolve, and act out their parts because we've grown together.
If you're writing, and you want to keep writing, you have write.
It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be even good. It doesn't have to be grammatical. It doesn't have to be anything you want someone to read.
You just have to practice listening deeply to your story and using your body, brain and fingers to physically type out the story.
Writing only happens when your butt is in the chair with your fingers on the keys. Period.
If you wish to be inspired, then you need to put yourself into your chair or at your microphone for dictation and get busy.
You catch the story by writing it.
So get to work.
Write. And write some more. Don't stop writing until you're sure you don't have anything left in the well.
Refilling the well is another story. But for now, it's time for you to get to work.
No excuses.
Do the work.
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