Keep in Writing Shape

I recently read an article in a special "Get Published" booklet published by The Writer Magazine. The author, Michael P. Geffner, spoke of the things the serious writer needs to do: networking, deadline pressure, read, make friends with other writers, and other things. He charged us to be proactive. "Action breeds action. Don't be lazy for even one moment. Be relentless in your writing."

The part that hit me, because I seem to be having some difficulty with it of late, was "Write something every day. No matter what. Forget that you're tired or don't feel like it. You're supposedly a writer. So write. Don't be a pretender. And don't even think about that dreaded aspect of all things creative: writer's block. If you're convinced you have writer's block, just write about it. Write about why you think you're blocked. Trust me, this'll snap you out of it in a hurry. Remember, all writers, from Tolstoy to Hemingway to Stephen King, have written badly before they wrote well."

I refuse to be a pretender. There are too many years behind me where writing was a hobby, or took a back seat to my "real" job. So, I write. And, yes, there are days when the story just won't come. On those days, I plot. I read. I blog. And, of course, I angst. I am an artist suffering for my craft, after all. But then I read some more. And plot some more. And, on most of those days, I write. I give myself permission to write crap. Sometimes it's stuff that I can keep to refer back to as story or character history. Sometimes it goes in the recycle bin never to be seen again. And sometimes, on rare occasions, I glean a kernel or two that I can keep.

Because, when it's ready to go out to readers, it has to be as near to perfect as I and an editor can make it.

Write on!