Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Yesterday one of my clients posted a note on her Facebook page, sharing that she was sick– really feeling lousy– with a migraine on top of a cold. She sounded like she wished she could just go back to bed, but she ended saying, “I need to get some writing done so I’m up and pretending I’m better.”
Writers write through.
There are always excuses– illness, appointments, family issues, demanding jobs, money crunches, homeschooling, disappointments, dust, dishes, and laundry. Dilettantes [definition: a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge] write when the spirit moves them. Writers write through.
ICRS– the CBA trade show is on the horizon. Everyone is forecasting even smaller crowds of buyers. The retail market for books continues to shrink. Readers spend so much time on social media they are cutting into reading time. Even Amazon is making decisions that allow second hand books (which don’t put a penny in the authors’ pockets) to be sold right along with new books.
Sounds like a good time to take stock and maybe slow down the writing while we see how things shake out, right? Of course not. Writers write through. The funny thing about real writers? They can’t not write.
What about disappointment with your own writing? Is it good enough? Is there too much competition? Is your platform big enough? Will the category or genre you are writing still work in the marketplace?
So I’m putting this to you. What valid excuses do you have to put off writing? Why are you writing through? What kinds of strategies do you employ for writing through? (Or, if you need to confess– why have you slowed down?)
Let’s talk.
Valid excuses. I have two children–ages 4 and 1. The youngest is a handful. I Only get 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night.
I write through because I can’t not write. It’s my release, a way to connect deeper with God, and who I am.
I write from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. and when inspiration hits. Even if it’s 3.
Oh goodness, I remember that stage. I salute you! I wrote early in the morning, like 4:00am when my kids were that age, when they are home for the summer, I still do. I am not a morning person! But you do what you need to do. Hang in there, I get it. That creativity is such a vital part of us, especially when we are pouring ourselves out into motherhood. God Bless!
You make my point, CJ. Writers write, no matter what it takes.
Not exactly an excuse: Sometimes I write around. I get stumped, so I shove that chapter on a back burner and let it simmer. And I go back a few chapters and edit. I start a new section. I write blogs ahead. I write a long letter to a distant friend.
* I solve problems the same way. Years ago, a coworker told me, “It used to drive me crazy how you’d ignore a problem. But now I get it. You aren’t ignoring it. You solve it when you’re not looking at it.”
* I find, by the grace of God, the solution eventually comes to mind and I can move forward.
You wrote: I solve problems the same way. Years ago, a coworker told me, “It used to drive me crazy how you’d ignore a problem. But now I get it. You aren’t ignoring it. You solve it when you’re not looking at it.”
You put into words something I’ve practiced for a long time. I think of it as sneaking up on a problem from a different angle.
I’ve always thought of it as an obtuse angle. We’re kindred spirits, Wendy.
I love this, Shirlee. I think I problem solve this way.
I work full time and travel a lot for that job. It’s high intensity. But I find I accomplish the most when I am forced to prioritize and deadlines don’t allow for procrastination.
Thus, I try to use my subway commute and my lunch breaks at work for all the “extra” author marketing stuff: graphics and blog interviews and guest posts, etc., That frees up evenings and weekends for work on my novels. When I travel for work, I write in airports, write at hotel restaurants, keep a notebook for those last-minute ideas before meetings. Writers who work should expect that while other people enjoy evenings, weekends and vacations, those will become your ally and friend for uninterrupted writing time. 🙂 Without them, working writers would never get anything done.
To make it seem still like a bit of a break on a weekend, I will often take my laptop out into the world: to a pub with the baseball game on or two a park and work there for awhile. Being a writer with a full-time job doesn’t mean being a hermit, it just means finding ways to work in your social life and commitments with writing. If you want it badly enough, you make the sacrifices and you make it work. I actually find I am happier and more fulfilled in my career because I write— it gives me an imaginative outlet and helps me get more done during the day so I rarely have to carry my day job home at night 🙂
Impressive, Rachel. My theory is that the more you rub shoulders with people, the richer the eventual book. The world of the hermit shrivel up and dry out.
Valid excuses–I really should be cleaning and decluttering our house. I should be pouring myself into that and yet I am writing. I have 3 sons, a husband, myself and a 100 pound dog in a 2 bedroom apartment. We could use the space and the ability to reliably find our shoes … and I do clean, every day, but I could be doing more of it. Instead, I also write and volunteer and write and work on camp paperwork and write!
Kristen, which is the more important legacy: people remembering (if they even do) that your home was spotless and always ready for a home-decor photoshoot or having a book you wrote touch a tender spot in someone’s life and bring healing?
*When my kids were little and I worked a full-time high-intensity job, I knew they would remember me sitting on the floor playing Legos and Barbies, but they couldn’t care less if there were enough dead dustbunnies behind the sofa to support a potato crop. My advice is to keep it clean enough to be healthy and tidy enough to be livable, but make sure you get that writing done, too.
Great excuse but even greater reason to keep expanding your world, right?
I loved Andy Stanley’s message on Father’s day. He spoke of not allowing your passion for success or other motives to keep one from making their family, spouse a priority, the house crumbles when only one is holding the load and left holding the load. I agree there are times to write through and I also know there are times for balance. I spent a week on vacation last week, with my daughter a birthday gift from her to my mother and I. We enjoyed Disney World from sun up to sun down and I didn’t bring my lap top :). Sometimes those you love are more important for a season. I agree with Shirley I too walk away from my desk and find the ideas fly when I am not sitting and seeking for the next line. My head is clear going about the house cleaning and in the most unexpected way the scene comes. Love when this happens. Love writing.
Good argument for balance, Jeanette. That’s why writers need to be realistic when it comes to setting deadlines.
I have to write because it’s the only way I can still communicate. I don’t have enough breath for any kind of conversation, and it hurts too much to try to speak. So there you go, and I guess it makes me a better listener.
* Most of my efforts are now limited to keeping up my blog, and contributing as I can in the wider blogosphere. There aren’t enough ‘good hours’ in the day left for fiction, and as I do have an established community of blog readers I owe them my best efforts as a priority. The rest of the time I spend on the floor in a foetal position, waiting for pain to abate to the point where I can rise again. Were it not for the fact that it feels like a couple of wolverines are trying to rip me in half, it might be quite relaxing; it is a good place for prayer, though that activity’s limited to “C’mon, God, get me through this!”
* There’s another reason why I’d probably back away from fiction even if I had the strength to write it; my paradigms have shifted so much toward survival being the end which justifies any means that I don’t think I could connect with readers. There is no room for social graces or romance or reflection, and I don’t even remember those things; how could I write about them?
Honesty compels, and while the above is true, it’s also a self-generated smokescreen; there’s a more basic reason I stopped writing fiction. I stopped believing in my work, and in myself.
* I listened to the negative monologue in my head for too long, and my efforts to quell it were halfhearted. The erosive process is neither insidious nor subtle, and when you allow it to go on long enough, it can do a lot of damage.
* The only advice I can give is Get Help. Talk to your writing friends, talk to your spouse, talk to your pastor. Don’t try to go it alone, because this slide-to-oblivion can kill a lot more than a writing career.
Fiction can be hard when you come up against barriers. Artists need confidence. You’ve given good advice.
Agreed, Andrew. It’s important to realize that writing’s vital enough to holler for help.
*I’m not sure if this is what you meant, and I hope I’m not being too dramatic, but depression, once started, can pick up steam quickly. If left alone, it can and will destroy any hope a person has. Sometimes, hope is all a person has.
*Hang on, Andrew.
Yes, Peggy. Sometimes hope is all you have…and sometimes you have to go to the ends of your strength to nurture the hope that there IS hope.
There are times my body cries out for something specific, something like green beans, or a large, leafy salad. If I go too long without those things, my body begins to demand satisfaction. It is the same with writing. If I allow my busy-life issues to encroach on my writing, eventually my inner man will cry out and demand satisfaction. Like CJ, I can’t not write. Like Jeremiah, it is like fire in my bones. What God does with it from that point forward is up to Him.
Yes, I have scheduled times for writing. My wife and I refer to it as my “other full-time job.” We’re only half joking about that. Outside that scheduled time, occasionally I get a thought, or an urge, and I have to go to the office, sit down, and pound that out. In that sense, it is like feeding an addiction.
Truth, here. Yes, it can be like food for those called to write.
My friend schedules writing time into her every day. But she has an agent, she’s already published, she appears to have a great writing future. I admire her. I guess my valid excuse would be … why continue to write novels when my work might not be good enough, when my works might collect on my desktop, instead of bookstore shelves? When I’m a homeschool mama for one more year and I always have that pressing thought that everything I do outside school is taking away a lesson learned from my daughter. But this place always encourages me … the testimonies of writers who keep writing and eventually it happens … eventually they write that great novel, eventually their skill level and hard work shine through, and publishers want to see what else they’ve written. And like others have mentioned, when the idea sparks in the heart, the combustible story has to find its way to the page.
I hear you but we need to continue to write to hone our crafts well. The funny thing is that even if we get discouraged, the muse doesn’t seem to get the memo. Look at how many writers make a public announcement that they are leaving the writing world. The second they do that, the ideas come fast and furious and we see them sneaking back.
Thanks for this thought-provoking post, Wendy. I guess I’ll confess I haven’t been “writing through” as much as I should lately. I’m in the stage of beginning to plot and outline a new novel, which, for some reason, is always the most difficult part for me. The outline isn’t coming as quickly as I’d like and is difficult, which makes me fall into a pattern of what I call Writer’s Avoidance. 🙂 This period is always a time of spiritual testing and learning for me as I have to rely completely on God to get me through and trust that He will give me the story to write in His time. But my responsibility in the meantime is to keep sitting at the computer, trying my best, no matter the results. That’s the hard part for me.
I hear you but don’t forget that those fallow times before getting into the next book are often times of working out the book. We need times to gather inspiration as well.
What a great way to look at it, Wendy. Thanks!
My only “valid” reason for not writing at this moment is that I’m waiting to hear back from my final beta reader before I begin revisions. I’ve deliberately stepped away from writing for the time being so I can come to the revisions completely fresh. However, I’m using my former writing time to catch up on my reading–which I consider almost as important as actually writing.
True. Reading is important inspiration as well.
Since I don’t have a lawyer present, there will be no confessions forthcoming at this time.
Although, one confession? I was pondering some chocolate today. But I didn’t cave in!!
Ahem…
Things have been interesting lately. Thus, my head needed a bit of time to stop spinning.
So, instead of standing still and wondering what to do, I got caught up on non-writing projects that needed my attention. I know my limits, and am thankful for the space between breaths in which to ponder, pray, and stretch my wings.
What kinds of projects? Everything from doing some tailoring on clothes that have somehow expanded, working in my garden, sorting through old clothes, and even finding the exact colour of embroidery thread for repairing a tear in the upholstery of our antique car.
I may do a blogpost on that fiasco. I’ll title it “Father’s Day Afternoon: A Humorous Showdown in the Fabric Store”.
Yes, I won.
Ahem…squirrel!
Now that I’ve cleared the Honey Do List, and all those petty but piled up jobs are done, I can go back and open the unfinished files that I left hanging a while back, and not worry about things left undone, just words left unsaid.
Our house will be kid-free for most of July, and as #4 Kid said “Wow Mom, you’re going to have tonnes of time to write!”
Yes, Mr. 6 Foot Tall Baby of The Family, that I am.
…although, I did do a heap of plotting while I took a brief hiatus from writing. I managed to sort through several plot issues, for 3 different stories. So even when not actually writing, I was working on what to do once I cleared the decks.
Even when I can’t write, I can’t not do something useful!
You made the point I was trying to make above– and you made it much clearer.
Confession: there have ben times, such as caregiving and dealing with the terminal illness and death of a beloved family member when I did very little writing. If I’d had a book contract I might have managed to do that, but most of my writing got put on the back burner for a while.
I am emerging from a season of rejection and waiting. In that season I struggled through waning confidence and self doubt that made my husband wonder whether I’d lost my mind. Instead of giving in, I have delved in. Daily 5 AM wake-up calls with coffee as fuel, and writing before any of my family have awoken. Even the dog looks at me and lazily each morning as though I have lost my mind. I am writing in spite of rejection and in spite of an unknown publishing future, and it’s liberating.
If only I could have seen all my text in the mini window of my phone to see how talk to text mangled my sentences. Alas…back to writing!
I’m a triple-negative, metastatic breast cancer patient & will never be off Chemo until God calls me home. Yet, in those “every 21-days” infusion cycles there are plenty of times where opportunity + commitment + ability align ~ and I push through. Not always because the same “I’m not good enough” inertia lingers from pre-cancer. I have published 2 romance novellas in last six months, and four more are contracted. Yet I still tread water on the “good days.” And other days I write feverishly til fatigue and pain become too much. My contribution to this blog is to urge writers to just do it. No excuses. Don’t wait for that terminal illness wake-up-call that some get. No one is promised tomorrow and books don’t write themselves.