Monday, January 17, 2011

the blank page

Anyone else having trouble staring down the blank page, or the blank screen? I must admit I've avoided any new writing pretty successfully over this holiday season. Don't get me wrong, I've revised and submitted several short stories and started a huge overall of my WIP.

But...no new pages.

I aspire to be a professional writer, but apparently I'm already a professional procrastinator. I haven't managed anything brand new. And a big deadline is approaching...new chapters due to my mentor. I need to start them! I need to start them now.

I've heard many professional writers say "You need to write everyday." and I totally agree with this (okay, maybe not every day, but almost every day). Somehow, I don't do it.

Author Maria Synder said something recently that made a lot of sense. She said writing is like going to the gym. You can't go to the gym once a month and work out and expect good results. You have to work out regularly, you have to flex those muscles. Writing is similar. You must flex your writing muscles regularly to make them strong. Ah ha! Now I get it! Thanks, Maria!

So here I go, I'm going to write some new pages. No more blogging. No more procrastinating.

Right now.

Here I go.

Right this minute.

Now...

2 comments:

  1. Hahaha you have my sympathy.

    Usually my writing freezes solid until something falls into place. Fun thing here is that I never know what that thing is.

    But recently, I felt like writing but not the story with the self-imposed April deadline.

    So I gave in and wrote something else for a day.

    The day after that, I just jumped into the deadlined story and flew through ten thousand words...

    Now I'm worried that my creativity will freeze up soon.

    Sigh.

    Good luck though.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Misha. Good luck to you, too.
    -Lesley

    ReplyDelete