Though I have been working on my tour in July for So You Want to Write a Guest Post, Echo Falls has still been on my mind – and on my work schedule. I was coming to the deadline for getting the free proof copy from CreateSpace (a prize for completing NaNoWriMo), so I finished edits and formatted to get in on time.

And I created a cover…

It took a little while to get around the things I disliked about the template, but it didn’t turn out too bad. And I didn’t have to pay for it, which is a plus due to recent circumstances.

I don’t want to jump into anything too fast, but dang am I excited!

One of the most challenging things for a writer is to make the commitment to sit down every day and write.

It can be hard with timing and family and work. The list goes on and on. When you finally sit down, it’s easy to claim writer’s block and go watch television instead of writing.

Well it’s time for you to stop being so soft on yourself and start writing. Make the commitment.

Remember writing challenges? I had the idea I would give a prize at the end of every week to anyone who could show me they had completed the challenge. However, most of those challenges were to set a certain minimum word count every day.

What’s the problem? Well, if you can’t get your butt in a chair to write every day without an instant reward to motivate you, then you’re not going to get published.

There isn’t always going to be someone there (in fact, there is hardly ever going to be someone there) dangling your needed carrot in front of you to motivate you to write. Most of the motivation is going to have to come within you. You are the one who is going to have to whip the moaning, lazy parts of yourself that stop you from writing. Only you can turn down all the voices in your head telling you what you’d rather be doing.

So the next time you choose the television over writing, remind yourself you’re gazing into your future. Ten, twenty, or more years from now, you’ll still be choosing the television.

That is, if you don’t change. Today.

Okay. The house is quiet – as quiet as it will ever get, anyway – and it’s time to write. No distractions, just pure writing time. Pure writing time that you have been waiting for so long. Now you can get cracking on the current work in progress and –

Hey! Look! Is that snow? I think that’s snow. Gosh, the first snow of the season. Lovely. Oh, shoot. Did I forget to do laundry? I haven’t even thought about dinner tonight…

No one can procrastinate like writers can. We’re a strange bunch; when it comes to actually sitting down and writing, our attention span suddenly morphs into that of a hummingbird’s. Scrubbing the kitchen floor never looks as appealing as it does when you have your novel to work on.

Some writers have no problems with this. Or so I’ve heard.

I’m a procrastinator of the highest order. If I have time, I’m tired. If I’m not tired, I have other things to do. If I don’t have other things to do, I don’t have the right notebook, pen, lighting, chair… Yeah, I’ve even used the chair excuse.

Don’t take this to mean that I don’t love writing. I do. However, when you get a case of the Evil Editors playing with your brain and let them win once, it’s like you give bunnies Viagra and set them loose; suddenly, the next time you go to write, you have thousands of Evil Editors in your brain telling you why you suck. A lot.

After my Evil Editors grew to plague numbers, I decided to come up with three things to help me focus:

1. Remind yourself that all you are doing is playing games with yourself.
2. Ask yourself what you’re so afraid of.

And

3. If the EEs still exist, give them room to roam on a blank page. Then pick them off in any way you choose.

I prefer a machete.

When it comes to wanting/creating/sustaining a career in writing, one must have a heap of dedication to their art. It’s not easy being a writer in any sense. It’s probably one of the most masochistic arts out there.

And that’s why it’s not all that surprising when our dedication is tested.

I’ve been tested a lot lately with my writing. It’s hard to pursue your love when money is tight. It’s hard to pursue your love when you struggle with depression. It’s hard to pursue your love when work is increasingly demanding.

As writers, we often question our dedication to our art. Questioning is hard to avoid when you can pour months or years into something and then have it determined ‘not worthy’ by whatever gatekeeper you’ve set up as your ‘one’.

The one thing that keeps me through and reminds me that this is my passion and I should always pursue it is the fact that, even when I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. Sometimes it’s writing in my zines, but most of the time it’s the next novel. In idle times, a character or a situation will pop into my head to remind me its still there waiting to be written. Some characters are nicer than others, gently reminding, while others flash their weapons at me threateningly until I get to the computer or a notebook.

Plus, just being able to talk about writing in that way makes it clear to me that I’m not being misguided and that my happiness (and frustration, depression, concentration, bliss, etc) lies in writing.

Don’t be hard on yourself for questioning; be hard on yourself for not writing despite the questioning.

Things are finally coming together in what I will hope will be a very exciting end to the month.

My ebook for authors – So You Want to Write a Guest Post: An Author’s Guide to Promoting with Guest Blogging – is nearly ready to go up for the Kindle and on Smashwords. Woohoo!

Echo Falls is going to be ready soon, hopefully. Haha. I need to make time to get it done. Thankfully most of the work left to be done is the fun stuff: tweaking, polishing characters, etc.

My zines have also been a lot of fun and I’m meeting a lot of new friends through making them. I highly recommend trying making some of your own.

So that’s what’s happening on my end. What’s happening elsewhere? New books? New projects? New blogs?

Fear. That’s what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? The reason you’re not writing?

Oh, I used to tell myself that I was just too busy to right, too. There was just too much going on for me to think about writing. I mean, not only do you have to sit down, then you have to think about what to write, and then? Then you actually have to write it.

Sound familiar?

Well, whether you know it or not, the most likely reason you’re not writing (or doing whatever artistic activity brings you pleasure) is not lack of time but lack of confidence.

I’m not trying to criticize you. I’ve been there. I avoided my creative writing for months by drowning myself in as many writing related tasks as I could. That way I could still say that I was writing, but I could also avoid my creative writing.

I didn’t want to consciously avoid my creative writing; I was simply afraid. Why? Well, part of getting past the fears, doubts, and blocks is figuring out your own personal reasons for not writing.

Do you think you’ll never be successful? Is your past filled with people cutting you down and telling you that you’ll never be what you want to be? Did you have a childhood focused on being told you need to do something that will pay the bills?

Take some time and think about why you’re not writing. On of the best ways to do this, courtesy of The Artist’s Way, is to write “I [your name] am an excellent writer who will get published.” Doing that will bring out all your little fears and doubts so you can snatch them and figure out what’s behind them.

This could be the first step in unleashing your creativity like it has never been unleashed before.