Just Write

Blood on the page.  That’s what my teacher, Con Sellers, called writing as a way of explaining why many of us show reluctance to actually sit down and get it done.  It’s easy to make excuses for not writing – my kids are screaming,  my pencils aren’t’ sharpened,  my tummy hurts, I’m blocked.  I was luckier than most new fiction writers:  after working in a newsroom, I didn’t believe in writer’s block. Learning how to make daily deadlines quickly cures you of that.  And as someone who’d always been paid to write, I was totally impressed with other writers who had to fit their writing around their day jobs.  Like a woman I know who had four kids and a full-time job and got up every morning at 5 a.m. so she could write for 90 minutes.  Wow.  And a man I heard about – a surgeon – who figured if he wrote one page every day for a year he’d wind up with a book.  My own story is far less inspiring.  My daughter Nellie was an infant when I was dreaming up and writing my second published novel, Any Day Now.  When I started, she napped twice a day.  As soon as she was in her crib, I’d scoot to my desk, turn on the baby monitor and get to work.  When I heard her wake, I’d stop writing – midsentence usually but sometimes midword.  By the time I sold the book, she was down to one nap a day, which cut my work time in half.  Tough luck but that’s life.  So my advice to wannabes who insist that circumstances be perfect before they get down to work:  Just Write.  Bottom line, that’s all you have to do to become a writer:  put words down.

Copyright 2008  © by Beth Quinn Barnard of text and photos.  All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.