I picked up a book the other day at Barnes and Noble called "The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes." I don't usually go for self-help books that tell me what not to do, (don't do this, don't do that) but this one seemed to have merit.
I thought I'd share a blurb from the book every day with the Author's Hangout. Read, discuss, agree, disagree, or just bump the thread for the next person. I figure these might be useful to someone out there besides me.
Don't Make Excuses
(following excerpt is from the book)
The world is brimming over with people good enough to make a living as writers. Thank goodness -for those of us who are working, and don't need any more competition- most such talented people spend their creative energies making excuses, and never quite get around to the job at hand.
If you are serious about the craft of fiction, you must never make excuses for yourself. You simply cannot allow yourself to:
Simply put: Writers write; everyone else makes up excuses.
The author goes on to suggest a way to break yourself of making excuses: For each day that you do write, record how many hours you worked and how many words you produced and mark them on your calendar. For each day that you did not work, type one double-spaced page of excuses, date it, and file it in a special place. Your excuses must fill an entire page, about 250 words. If you follow this system relgiously, the author suggests you'll either start investing your time in writing that's more creative, or you'll quit.
In either case, you'll stop kidding yourself.
I thought I'd share a blurb from the book every day with the Author's Hangout. Read, discuss, agree, disagree, or just bump the thread for the next person. I figure these might be useful to someone out there besides me.
Don't Make Excuses
(following excerpt is from the book)
The world is brimming over with people good enough to make a living as writers. Thank goodness -for those of us who are working, and don't need any more competition- most such talented people spend their creative energies making excuses, and never quite get around to the job at hand.
If you are serious about the craft of fiction, you must never make excuses for yourself. You simply cannot allow yourself to:
- say you're too tired
- postpone work until "later"
- fail to work because you're too busy right now
- wait for inspiration
- plan to get right at it "tomorrow"
- give up because (editors) (agents) (readers) (critics) are unfair.
- tell yourself you're too old or too young to start
- blame others in your family for your lack of free time
- say your job is too demanding to allow you any other activity
- tell yourself that your story idea isn't good enough
Simply put: Writers write; everyone else makes up excuses.
The author goes on to suggest a way to break yourself of making excuses: For each day that you do write, record how many hours you worked and how many words you produced and mark them on your calendar. For each day that you did not work, type one double-spaced page of excuses, date it, and file it in a special place. Your excuses must fill an entire page, about 250 words. If you follow this system relgiously, the author suggests you'll either start investing your time in writing that's more creative, or you'll quit.
In either case, you'll stop kidding yourself.
, minus the lipstick and feminine shape).
