I'm Soooo a 10!

Ha ha...fooled you. No, this is not a column about how I look like Bo Derek or Cindy Crawford or Beyonce'. There are no dramatic photos of me running on a beach. (I promise, no one would want to see that.)

What am I talking about then? 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes by Bob Mayer. I posted the link to the free pdf last week. I believe the "free" part lasts through January, so get it while you can.

I feel like this blog is almost like AA--I'm in a group of friends that I can confess my greatest writing sins to and you'll know exactly how I feel. So today I thought I'd share one of the 70 mistakes I'm really relating to right now.

Number 10 in the book is "Waiting for the Mood to Strike". How many of you are the same way, making a cozy spot for your muse (with a nice bowl of chocolates), waiting for her mercurial self to show while you do laundry, clean the kitchen, or play Facebook games? I know I do that way too much, that waiting around thing. We hear stories like J.K. Rowling riding home on the bus and getting a vision of a boy in glasses with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. But Harry Potter would never have seen the light of day if she hadn't been willing to sit and write it out.

Developing this habit is key if we want to truly achieve our goals of being a published writer. I have writing friend that had honed her craft through regular writing and had written several books, but wasn't sure if she was ready to start submitting. Her crit partner bugged her into entering a well-known national contest for unpublished writers. She won her catagory, and through a series of crazy coincidences, met the agent of her dreams at this convention who offered to represent her. She then sold SIX books in two separate three-book deals to two separate publishers. And now she has to write and keep up with editing schedules. If she hadn't developed that "write every day" habit, she'd be overwhelmed now. But she was prepared, and now she can use that habit to continue in her writing career.

So today decide when your writing time is. Do whatever you have to do, but make that time sacred. And then write. Grind it out if you have to. But as you put in the daily practice, you will find that your writing becomes better, the ideas come easier, and your ability to keep going grows.