There’s really no escaping it once you get started.
You can meet up with local writers for a drink and write session, join an online group of like-minded scribes, shoot the crap with buddies over at Twitter but at the end of the day it comes down to you. You, alone with your thoughts, in front of your laptop, maybe pen and paper if you’re doing it old school. Late at night when everyone in your home’s asleep or maybe before the sun peeks out – you’re already at it.
Forget about the inbox and the direct messages that you probably need to respond to. Forget about the comments that need to be moderated on your blog, and the “oh shoot, I have to pay that bill today” and “I need to get some groceries later” realizations. You look at your phone and there’s already several new voicemails from family and work clients. Not right now.
Right now you’ve got a fresh pot of coffee brewing / tea steeping / ice cold energy drink – and you’re fired up and ready to go with that story of yours that’s been in the back of your head since its conception. The characters are getting in your face, going stir-crazy and wanting individual attention. The truth is, you can picture all of them in your head like you went to school with them all your life. You see their faces on the faces of people riding in your morning commute. Sometimes you even see them when you look into the mirror.
Right now this is your adventure, your time, your universe. The fabric of the characters’ very existence relies on whether or not you are going to write anything significant – not later, not tomorrow, not during your lunch break, but NOW.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” Maya Angelou said.
So listen to your characters. Build their towns and their homes. Experience their dreams, failures, and shortcomings. Conquer their fears as if it were your own monsters.Whatever you need to do, always make time to get the words out as long as there are stories to be told. All the buzz about marketing, the author platform, the debates on which method or route to take seem insignificant when you think of it in terms of building worlds.
If you want advice, I can only offer you one sound one at this moment: Write first about the things you yourself would want to read. If it’s not an adventure to you, it won’t be an adventure to anybody else. Become the hero, the villain, and the beast of your tales. Now I don’t mean that literally, but do get into their heads and see their world as they see it.
The threat of information overload keeps the focus away from the basic act of writing. So many things to update, so many blogs to read, and tools to aid us all in being more productive when all it’s really doing is taking attention away from our work.
The only reason I’ve managed to crank out one short story after another, a couple of manuscripts, and numerous blog posts is due to my obstinate nature. Plus if I don’t get it done, I won’t hear the end of it from ME. There’s no secret to it but to keep your focus on each project. I can’t offer you rules on writing because I break them all the time. I wouldn’t be much of a role model. I’ve only been writing fiction seriously for a few years but it’s been a hell of a learning experience. Intense and mercurial most of the time, peppered with bad habits. Nutrition, exercise, posture, sleep? What the hell are those? I’ll get back to my routine after this book is done. Seriously. Until then my circadian rhythm is all jacked up, food delivery is my bitch, the only exercise I’ll be getting is when I walk our little basset hound. That’s fine by me because that’s how I get it done. Not sure what your method of madness is but this seems to work out for me.
It’s not how you slay the beast, it’s whether or not you get it done.
Just a few thoughts from your friendly neighborhood letter-puncher.
- Ro Van Saint (I write horror, dark fantasy stories)
Read my blog at www.zerotorockstar.com
I enjoy chatting with people at Twitter, do add me @zerotorockstar
