Kathy

My faithful writing buddy wins the prize for how to best use time!

Her suggestion? Schedule it.

Kathy said she was most productive during the season when she made out a schedule and posted it everywhere. That posted timeline became her stop and go sign for the day. Kathy wrote. A lot. And her writing was published. (Congrats Kathy).

Not exotic. Effective.

It's working for me too. I learned a while back that if you wait for the muse you might as well forget it. Blank page? Blank mind?

Just write. Something.

Moving the fingers somehow greases the mental gears for a tactile, kinesthetic learner like me.

So, I got a schedule and I'm stickin' to it. See you next blog!

Time

Time gets eaten up so quickly. I'm sneaking this in before I return to the task of finishing my edit. I've been away from writing long enough to see it more objectively. I know the little time grabbers that hang me up. Temptations to: check email, make one phone call, weed the garden...

Somehow, I have to revamp my schedule to be both more productive and less compulsive about writing. Because it is a compulsion. An addiction. A passion that, like the mint in my garden, wants to take over my world.

Any suggestions? Please post a comment.

John

“People are going to criticize you… Don’t live in the criticism. Live in the calling,” John said.

Those words  spoke to me.

I have been living in the criticism of my writing, devastated by comments made by two writing contest judges. Their words cut so deeply that my only way of coping has been to put the whole thing aside. Right at the end of my final edit. I’ve been trying to get beyond questioning my abilities as a writer, wondering if I need to take writing classes before I try to do this again, and wondering if I should give up.

Death of the vision. 

My writing has been immobilized. Comatose. 

Identity crisis.

But an amazing thing has happened while my writing has been asleep. I have grown in my identity in Christ, seeing that as the source of my self worth, not my writing, not whether this book is ever published. In the past, I identified a little too closely with my writing, as if it were the most important thing about me. 

Then, I received a phone call from my editor. I shed tears as he affirmed my skill and the quality of my work in progress.

And now the calling is back, but it is cleaner. There is less of me in it. 

This morning I came to Starbucks to write.

I had to leave my dear husband or today would go like every other Saturday: I rise early and sneak out to the back porch with my laptop. I settle into my favorite chair, inspired by the balmy air and peaceful greenery. My fingers begin to fly across the keyboard when he tumbles out looking like a puppy ready to play. His big brown eyes droop a little and he asks, “Do you mind if I sit out here with you a while?” I love this man. How can I refuse? I push my laptop to the side. We sit and talk. I get another cup of coffee. One or both of our college age children pass through. By now it is time for lunch. We eat. I return to the porch only to find my writer’s muse chopped up in the annoying growl of the neighbor’s lawnmower.

Here at Starbucks my headphones drown out the shuffle of feet, and the conversations of people starting their day. The rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee surrounds me, and flows to my brain sip by sip. And now, happily anonymous, I will write.

Life Juggling

Stephen King's book On Writing is packed with choice advice on how to become a successful writer.

He tells of one interview where the reporter asked if he really writes everyday. Every day? King told the reporter that he takes off his birthday and Christmas.

Snicker.

Then, he tells the reader that the truth is that when he is working on a project he writes EVERY DAY, including his birthday and Christmas!

Getting there.