The Reality of Our Plans

What are your writing plans? To write a book? Publish a book? Or two? Three? Be a successful writer?

No matter our plans—life WILL get in our way.

I’ve always pictured my goals, especially in writing, on a linear path—a straight course that would get me from A to B.

** The reality is simple: we will face problems and setbacks. They can show up as:

Boulders - another name for them are life’s interruptions—slow us down as we lumber over them: phone calls; the Internet is out, again; the dishwasher stops working; oh, and my favorite-laundry

Bridges - at first glance, seem more important, but in the long scheme – they aren’t. We organizing our files—by color; decorating our offices, desks, or work areas; spending hours looking for just the right name for our character’s pet dog or cat or hamster;    

Boat on a lake - ah, just a short break (which, or course, we all need, right?). However, it turns into hours away from our writing: we fall asleep; play the game one more time; or watch just one more episode.

Thunderstorms - we listen to and believe the loud clap of negative comments from family, friends, our critique group, a paid editor, contest judges. It doesn’t matter who said it; we accept them without thought, without considering if the comments are correct. Do we find out if the person writes or reads the genre we write, or we even have the same style of writing? In my June 3, 2015, blog I blog about how a great critique group can help us learn and encourage us.

Stairs - we spend too much time climbing the steps to perfecting our craft and not enough time writing. We can only improve our writing by writing. I’m not saying we shouldn’t read trade books because we should, we need to so we can learn, but not to the point that we stop writing. 

Like anything else in our lives, we can let them rule us. Or we can make the decision to turn around, face our computers and type.

What do you do to get back to writing? Share your ideas/suggestions below in comments.

Have a great week and until next time, KEEP WRITING!