What keeps you writing?
Some days if just happens. Flow. You know
what I mean. When you put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and the
words just pour out of you. It’s as though your characters are sitting beside
you, telling you exactly what they see, and how they feel, and you just know
that what you’re writing is good, if not gold.
But other days…
Oh, the other days are something else
entirely. Like pulling teeth, or watching paint dry, those days can seem
excruciatingly long, and unproductive, and you just know that most of what you
write is fool’s gold at best; fat, padding words to be deleted soon (at worst).
What do you do in those moments?
I’ve been having a NaNoWriMo-type few
weeks. A recent 3-book contract for a US publishing house (yay! Still excited!)
means writing to deadline, for the first time in my life. Book 1 is done, but books
2 and 3 needs a great deal of work – even before being sent back for revisions.
So my days when I don’t work at high school mean working even harder to get
words on page. Good words. Or at least, good enough words.
Previous NaNo experiences have taught me
that it is possible, and with God I do believe all things are possible. But
still the slog remains.
So what keeps me writing? Apart from the
advance (!) and my contractual obligations?
Prayer works. Asking God for wisdom and direction gets a guaranteed response (check out James 1.5).
Prayer works. Asking God for wisdom and direction gets a guaranteed response (check out James 1.5).
Some days I need chocolate. A Twix bar is
good; it can be broken into several smaller portions, so when I hit the next
thousand then its choc reward time.
Sometimes I’ll make morning tea or lunch my
goal: get to this amount then eat. Hunger seems to be a good motivator in my
life :/
Other times, I need to get away for a few minutes, go for a walk, or revisit an inspiring scene or episode from a fave book or film (but beware the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice which sucks me in for hours...)
Other times, I need to get away for a few minutes, go for a walk, or revisit an inspiring scene or episode from a fave book or film (but beware the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice which sucks me in for hours...)
But sometimes there is something to be said
for pushing through, for keeping going, keeping pen in hand / fingers on keys and backside in chair, even if I know I’ll cringe later.
Because it can be that in the pushing through we stumble across the gold.
And that makes everything worthwhile.
How about you? What keeps you writing? Do
you have any tricks to share on what keeps you staying on task, especially when
you don’t feel motivated?
Carolyn
Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia,
with her husband and four children. A longtime lover of romance, especially
that of the Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves
drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our
lives. Her Regency novel 'The Elusive Miss Ellison' will be published in the US by Kregel in February 2017. She is represented
by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.
Carolyn
Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia,
with her husband and four children. A longtime lover of romance, especially
that of the Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves
drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our
lives. Her Regency novel 'The Elusive Miss Ellison' will be published in the US by Kregel in February 2017. She is represented
by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.