My Enemy, My Chair

"The hardest thing you will encounter as a writer is your chair."

 

Discipline. Perseverance. Self-Motivation. Call it what you will, it all shakes out to be the same thing. No one ever got anything worthwhile without hard work - period.

 

I'm not belittling how almost insurmountably difficult the publishing industry is, because that is what most people would say is the hardest part of writing. But I'd counter with - if you haven't spent the time in the chair then you'll have nothing to try to publish, so really, its the dedication of sitting your backside in that chair and making yourself push ahead when you don't feel like it or when there are a million other burdens pressing down on you, that really is the clincher.

 

Mostly along the lines of my 'start now' post - but I guess that's because it really, really irks me when people dream without passion. If you say "I'd really like to run a marathon before I die" but you're 40 pounds overweight and you don't even go for walks - well, if that is what you really want than you best get out today and walk a mile, do that for a month, then add two more, than start jogging, build to running, and run your first 5K within three months of that time. I'm so sick of people who don't TAKE ACTION. Life is a bull, just pawing on the ground, waiting to be gripped by the horns. Don't just exist...live. That, or stop saying pretty words that you have no intention on following through with, because really then you're just speaking lies. Think I'm overstating it? I don't. Because telling yourself you're going to run a marathon before you die and then doing nothing to work toward that goal is the worst lie of all - you're lying to yourself. If you don't have that type of dedication to go through the training, then admit it and move on - it doesn't make you a bad person, just one whose honest with themselves.

 

Wow...holy raging tangent Batman.

 

Backtracking that bunny trail....if you have dreams of publishing at all, whether is be in a local newspaper, just a simple book for family and friends, or you want to be an international best seller, it'll never happen if you don't do the hard work of sitting and plucking away at that keyboard (AND spend your hours interviewing and at the desks in the library researching...write with authority folks, don't make stuff up, even in fiction).

 

Now, I do not write full-time (wouldn't that be nice...). I have a full time job and then I am an avid runner and reader. I'm a clean freak about my home and spend a lot of time taking care of that each week. I have a husband who I like to spend time with and I am one of those old fashion girls who makes dinner from scratch each night. I have an active social life and mentor high school students. Now add time for writing. Wait...there is none.

 

So I have to sacrifice not doing many of these things if my desire truly is to be a multi-published author. I made a goal for myself to spend 2-3 hours every single day either writing or researching, no exceptions. It's the only way I'll make it. And sometimes that means staying up until 2am and then yanking myself out of bed at 5am and going to work with only 3 hours of sleep under my belt. Sometimes that means holing myself up in my little dungeon office on a beautiful summer Saturday. Sometimes it means *gasp* not cleaning my house that week (really, that's a huge deal).

 

What are you dreams worth to you?