You will be published if you possess three qualities - talent, passion, and discipline. You will probably be published if you possess two of the three qualities in either combination - either talent and discipline, or passion and discipline. You will likely be published if you possess neither talent nor passion but still have discipline. Just go to the bookstore and pick up a few 'notable' titles and you'll see what I mean. But if all you possess is talent or passion, if all you possess is talent and passion, you will not be published. The likelihood is you will never be published. And if by some miracle you are published, it will probably never happen again."
~~Elizabeth George, Write Away, p.253
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My favorite part of Elizabeth George's book is the journal entries included at the beginning of the chapters. To know that as successful as she is, she still has doubts, is heartening.
Well I'm home and exhausted. We worked from sun-up to sun-up on mom and dad's house. What little writing I did is in my journal. Root canal Monday, worked today and tomorrow is MY WRITING time! Yippey. So that is my goal...
Simply to WRITE!
Rats! I knew there'd be a catch! ;-)
I'm here again at the computer. Going to try to squeeze out an hour of writing though my mind just isn't on it today.
Tricia, here's another question for you:
How do you manage having to switch your creativity off and on all the time? It's very hard - I'm either struggling to get into my other world or can't function in the real one!
My writing goals for the next few days: Finish rereading the 100 pages of my sprawling wrimo novel, indentify where I need to extract the plot ninjas, and start unfolding the story again.
(Turn creativity off??? I've given up trying!)
I hope all of you are BUSY meeting those writing goals.
I will answer this question in more detail, but I just want to mention that like anything, turning the writing on/off is something you can train youself to do.
I'm blessed to be part of an online group with professional novelist. I bet 99.9% of them said that writing has little to do with creativity. Sometimes we feel creative, other times NOT. But the book needs to be written.
Personally, I have to sit down and just start typing. I may not feel like it. I may not even like what I'm writing, but I find out that I soon get in the flow and before I know it I'm off!
Of course, turning that off is harder for me. I get ideas while cleaning, or cooking, or in the shower. I like jotting notes to myself to help me remember. Or sometimes I turn down the burner and run to my computer. My family is used to this now and I know when the smoke alarm starts going off it's time to return to the kitchen. :-)
Dear Tricia,
Thanks so much for your honest response. I was able to do two hours this morning and found myself picking up the thread again rather quickly. I'm astonished at how well this story is going... it's flowing like a river and I already have 10,000 words. I know I'm probably just in the "honeymoon" stage but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I suppose if I had a contract I'd feel more pressure so I guess it's a good thing I'm just writing for the fun of it. Being unpublished has its blessings, I guess!
Just testing my new Google account to see what picture comes up.
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