Take the writing seriously

I read Romancing the Blog occasionally. It seems like a good thing to read – a bunch of romance authors writing about writing.

Today, I read Jordan Summer’s blog. Very enlightening.

She started off by saying that she’s going to be giving a presentation in a few months about going from unpublished to published. For obvious reasons, this captured my attention. I read on.

She said the biggest thing is to “DECIDE TO TAKE THE WRITING SERIOUSLY.”

Yeah. I’m there. Quite frankly, I’m obsessed. I love learning about writing and the writing industry. I love reading really great books and hoping to be that good someday. I love reading really not-so-good books and thinking, hell yes, I can do better than that. I love it all.

I even love writing. I love coming up with ideas. The muses are always throwing the ideas up at me, and I have to keep saying, "Wait, let me finish this one first." That alone might be the biggest incentive to finish my book -- those idea filled muses pestering me about a new story.

However, sometimes I use the Internet to “learn about writing” as a chance to avoid actually doing it – which is the hard part. We’ve been learning about blocks in the Girls in the Basement class. I think the Internet and all the great stuff out there about writing is a block for me. It’s easy to justify – I need to know this….it’s important to my career…what if not knowing this one thing keeps me from getting published.

What if not finishing my book keeps me from getting published? Isn’t that the problem I should be worried about? (The correct answer is yes.)

Hopefully, my goals will help me with this. I’ve got minimum word counts to hit each day. I’m not taking off from learning about writing, but I am setting some limits. Instead of signing up for every $25 workshop I can find, I’m really looking for ones with a purpose and trying to take them when I need them. For example, I NEED a plotting class and I will need a synopsis class soon.

It’s hard to say that learning about writing is a block for me because I defend that need ardently. However, that alone should be my biggest clue. What I really need is to write, to work on my plot, and to get the words on paper.

What I really need is to take my writing seriously. Anyone else on board?

The theme for this year is taking writing from hobby to career (aka taking my writing seriously.)

Thanks for the reminder, Jordan.

Macy