Tag: Your focus needs more focus.

and you don’t have to be.

We all want to sit down and be inspired. The words or art flow from our minds to our fingers and onto the paper. We all want to wait for our muse to perch on our shoulder and whisper prose of perfection and the poetry of Gods in our ear, but if we wait for that moment of inspiration we will be sitting there for a very long time. If you are willing to sit and TRY you will get closer to your image of perfection. Until then, cue the choir and spotlight on the awesomely amazing mess you just dropped in your 15 Magical Minutes.

My world is so random. Got a call yesterday that the roofers I’ve been bugging for months would be here this morning. Well, they are an hour and a half late. Grrrr! But…I am going to focus the next 15+ minutes on you and this post. Cool? Cool. Do you have your copy of Around the Writer’s Block by Rosanne Bane? Yes? Awesome. What’s in your cuppa? I am heavy on the coffee this morning and my nibbles are Oreos. What do you have? Something extra yummy, I hope.

My focus needs more focus today.

You do know that you can’t do everything during your 15-minute commitment, right? What you must understand is that’s okay. Throw words at the page today and fix them tomorrow. It has to start somewhere. Stephen King’s IT wasn’t perfected in its first pass. Believe it or not, it had to be edited, altered, and fixed. Crazy, right? Even the book we are working through wasn’t perfection in its first pass. You must be willing to write crap.
Crap can be fixed. As it is said, you can’t edit a blank page. The only way to begin is to begin. Beginnings can be rough and choppy but at least you are in there. Fix tomorrow what you started today and just keep going. That inspiration we are all working towards will hit at some point and the journey will become easier. Will it be free of bumps? Never. We will find ourselves going backwards from time to time- just don’t quit. When you fall back revert to your 15-minute commitment and start the process again.
To write something good, you must first write something. No where is it written that your words must be perfect the first time. Swipe that expectation off your shoulders. There are no demands on you except your promise to yourself to give it 15.

I want to write amazing stuff everyday…but its not always so. Maybe tomorrow. Even then I have to show up. One suggestion Rosanne offers is to talk to a writing ally. Someone you feel comfortable to talk to about your work and your struggles. I did this Thursday evening and gained new insight into my story. I now have the next 4 chapters plotted and outlined. Talking with people who understand the struggle can alleviate some of the pressure we put on ourselves.
I suggest finding a writer’s group. Check your local library, bookstores, and coffee shops for groups. They have helped me in so many ways. If it weren’t for their help and guidance, I wouldn’t have gotten my book out there when I did. Look- try- learn.

The roofers just showed. Great… ☹ Just under 2 hours late.