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.

Though humorously portrayed, too much blogging, like too much of pretty much anything, can be bad for you.

You knew that.

But could your blogging be ruining your writing abilities? In writing communities, this can be a very hot topic. What writer would want to do something to permanently ruin their ability to write?

You writing stopping your creative writing sounds a bit far out there, and it is. Blogging in itself won’t ruin your creative writing abilities by any means. It may influence them, but it won’t ruin them.

As a blogger, what you have to worry about is blogging too much. Do you spend more time blogging than you do creative writing? And no, you can’t count your character blog(s) as creative writing. It’s still blogging.

Do you blog more about what you’re going to write than you do actually writing? Do you spend more time reading other’s blogs than you do writing?

As with everything, moderation is key. I’m a feed reader woman myself with entirely too many blogs on it, but I still only spend a half an hour maximum reading it. I have a weight loss blog site, a personal blog, and a book/character interview blog. With those three combined, I still don’t spend more than an hour blogging.

The thing about blogging is that it can easily sweep your time away. If you want to know how much time you’re taking for both blogging and creative writing, keep track of the times and what you do during the day. If you’re spending more time blogging than creative writing, then something needs to change.

That is, if you want to get that novel done any time soon.

We’re all a bit tired at the moment. Regular posting again soon.

While I still have the deadline to get my big edits done by the end of the month, I have plenty of distractions that are making that deadline harder to reach…

New puppy!

New puppy and not so new kitty don’t know what to do about each other.

A whole new town to get used to…

With the move happening, packing, finding a rental, driving back and forth (two and a quarter hours one way) to Bendigo, I am feeling rather flattened – and not in the good tummy or bum way.

So, authors, aspiring writers, people with an idea or two…

How do you keep up with writing while you’re so busy?

Wow! What a past couple of weeks it has been. I meant to be blogging earlier than this, but a last-minute job interview for my husband took us two and some hours away on New Year’s Eve of all days. The good news is that they offered the job less than an hour later and now he’s just waiting to see the contract and make sure that’s all good before giving his notice.

I’m going to be a country woman! I haven’t been a country woman since I was a country girl back in the US. It’ll be a change of lifestyle, that’s for sure, but one that fits in very well with the next stages of life we’re looking at…

More good news is that I finished Echo Falls by my deadline! It certainly needs a lot of revision, but I actually have a complete manuscript to revise. Finally!

The funny thing is that I had planned on getting it done by goal and then taking off writing for about a week so I could see to other things and let Echo Falls fade a bit before diving into revisions, but I find myself itching for a pen! I feel wrong not writing, so I’m going to dive into doing a bit of outlining for what’s next until I can print off Echo Falls and rip it to shreds with my red pen and post-it notes.

I hope everyone else is having a fantastic start to the year!

Hello all!

I had intended to be back to blogging this week, but things aren’t quite working out that way. The Bloke is home all this week (it’s hard to resist taking four days off work and ending up with an eleven day break) and I’ve been spending extra time with him.

On top of that, I still have the goal of finishing writing Echo Falls before 2011, so I only have three days left! At this point, I only have about four scenes plus the wrap-up to write, so I should make it.

You can be sure I’ll write a ‘woot!’ post when I finish.

Ta ta!

I keep telling myself that I should actually finish writing a novel before worrying about things like pen names, but the topic keeps popping back into my head:

To pen name or not to pen name?

Do you/would you do it? I feel no particular need to be anonymous, but I am tempted to have some sort of pen name – either abbreviation or a completely different name – just to separate it from my work a bit, but I’m not sure if it’s necessary.

Something to think on. Anyone have anything to add?

My body decided to throw my for a loop by making me think my appendix was going to blow up. As it turns out, it was my sneaky ovary making all the fuss.

So I’m home now, but I’m sore, exhausted and having a bit of a hard time catching up with things.

Slowly but surely…