I’ve spent over 12 hours today helping a friend load and then unload 300 small bales of hay. Call it my personal ton and half of spiky prickly sneezy dead grass, stacked up a little taller than my short height. I strapped my hand very thoroughly and it’s more or less OK now, but that was still a lot of lift, shove, jump etc. So I’m very tired and quite stiff and sore, as that’s more manual labor at a time than your average desk-bound writer does, or even your average monkey does.
I could fall asleep standing up.
And here I am writing a blog post. I have a guest blog to write tomorrow, and this Next big thing to write to write the day after. I have my local writers group to be a mentor for on Wednesday too, which means doing that homework. And I’ve got my daily wordcount to chase, and I’ve promised to go and shoot a wallaby for Doyle (he’s an Irish Wolfhound puppy. How do you refuse something that size and that affectionate and that clumsy?)
So what has all of this go to do with a post on writing? Well, I just had another writer, one who is shall we say in the correct demographic to be very popular with the publishing fraternity, who is under contract – a lot more generously than I have ever been, whining about how she just can’t get in the mood to write. She just can’t do it poor dear. Her sensitive soul needs something to stir it.
And she’s not the only one, by far. I’ve met them by the hundred. Some vastly talented, some not, but vastly deluded. Writing is something they do when they feel like it, and they moan that they don’t always feel like it. And they’re really gifted… at putting it off.
I’d get into the Olympic procrastinating team. Ask anyone. But the bottom line with making a career out of writing is that – while real life can and does intervene – writing is an obligation. An unavoidable obligation, like my helping my friend with his hay. It was the last thing I want to do, but he needed help, the weather is turning, and I’m not the kind who likes to let people down. Reliability is important to me, and I think has to be to all writers. It’s about self-discipline. I don’t really want to write this blog post when I’m this tired. But it’s my share to the Mad Genius group on a Monday. The guest blog and the Next Big Thing – people turned to me saying they needed to do these, and could I help. They’re good for me too, even if I am not in the mood for them, and all I want is to go and shoot Doyle a wallaby, because loving doggy-slobber is one of my favorite drugs-of-choice. But I can’t, until I am done. Writing – just like helping your friends, is not just when the mood takes you. Then you’re a hobbyist. Wonderful, but don’t call yourself a professional, because you’re making pi-pi at the door step of the people who are trying to make a living at this. Those people behave like grown-ups instead of moody adolescent brats (yes, I am writing YA right now. Moody adolescent brats, and some teens dealing with this, because they accept responsibility, and it’s rewards and penalties.) Yes I know adolescents don’t like being told to grow up, but if you’re waiting for the mood to take you…
Grow up. Get down to it. Write 200 words. Not blog replies, or Facebook comments, but work on the book you’re writing. And then, simply because I have to do it with a bunch of writers I am trying to pay forward to… write a 2 line elevator pitch of your novel and post it. If you’re writer, not a dilettante, that is:-)
Mad Genius Club 
14 responses to “Hay you… wassa matter you…”
It’s like Stand by Me meets Lord of the Rings. The classic coming of age story with a quest to find something in a high fantasy setting.
OK – Jim you’ve done something relatively important here – used references that the pitched-to will get a much bigger picture from. The word ‘classic’ has been rather overused and tainted IMO.
Thank you for saying 200 words. I have a shot at 200 words per day. (I type more slowly than I think & my fingers trip over each other when they try to keep up with my brain.)
It’s about falling in love and being in lust and those things in between.
ps–i really hope you meant to type 200 & not 2000…
I break my books into 200 words before you do anything else segments. It works for me, as it’s just enough to get me into the book. Mostly I over-run it.
A short story about a mother and son who find a snow angel, and how the mother protects them both.
Rescued from a snake attack by a guardian dog spirit, a young man gets pulled into a world of magic, where Light and Dark battle for control of the planet, and possibly much more.
It’s a short-story collection about woman who just wants to live life her own way. Her enemies make her dangerous but her alliances make her a legend.
Stacey plays with making “magic” charms out of shells and driftwood, unaware that this is a sign of her impending breakthrough into true magic. And she’s equally unaware that she’s attracting the attention of both of the criminal magical organizations in her small twon.
Town. Sheesh.
And it’s two sentences instead of two two lines, so I’ll have to talk fast.
Lunch time meandering. How about:
Stacey plays with making magic charms from shells and driftwood, unaware that both of the criminal magical organizations in her small beach town are watching for her to break into true magic.
Or maybe put that dangling clause at the start?
Unaware that both of the criminal magical organizations in town are waiting for her breakthrough into true magic, Stacey pretends she is making “magic” charms out of shells and driftwood.
Or even:
With both criminal magical organizations watching, Stacey plays at “magic” with shells and driftwood, never thinking that the magic is about to turn real. And horrifying.
Or pick the adjective that fits your story.
Hope that helps!
Those writers that need a mood are artists more than just craftsman. They create on feeling rather than intellect and thought. Creative genius is often a very different ability than the IQ test type of genius ability.
Maybe she is a good writer because there is a ring of truth and depth when you create or write from the heart. Or even on the edge of consciousness. You actually have to switch off the brain and channel. Then switch back on the intellect after it’s done so you can criticize and edit
Oh, hmm. I kind of am in dilettante mode right now, honestly. I’m learning. I want to get into professional mode, but I’ve been a procrastinator and had little self-discipline all my life, so it’s taking more time than I expected.
This last month, I’ve been more “organizing” the next story (which has included writing part of a book that the characters will reference). I won’t talk about that book, though, since it’s under an undercover pen name.
Pitch for the most recent novel I was working on:
The heroine, a half-“angel”, learns control over her powers and to confront her own prejudices when she joins the elite group that fights against the darkness of this world. Alt-history, steam-fantasy.
Well you probably shouldn’t take my advice, because my dogs pretty much come first in my life. Especially pups (they’re only puppies for so long you know) unfortunately I always get another pup or two as soon as the ones I am raising grow up. So Doyle would have his wallaby, and teh story would languish.
My parents’ wolfhound Ruadh would like to express her approbation for your good taste in puppies, and your kindliness in making promises. 🙂