Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration,
the rest of us just get up and go to work.Stephen King
True story: I wish I’d read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft years ago.
I’m due for another read.
Of course, I said that when I’m already in the midst of three books. Also, true story.
Somewhere in there King also has a quote about not being able to write if you don’t read.
He’s right though about inspiration.
True, I’ve done it myself. I’ve struggled with what to write. What to post.
I did it a bit with this post until I decided there was no one sharing a birthday today that I wished to quote, or no incident in history about which I chose to write.
Okay, I really didn’t look that hard.But, writing is work. And often it’s just about sitting down at the keyboard and writing away. That’s the exercise I try every morning when I strive to get in a thousand words or more. That’s the concept behind Nanowrimo.
When writing is your job, and it’s just one of mine, you can’t sit around waiting for the muse to show up. You have to sit down and write.
You may be writing crap, but at least you’re putting words together.
That’s what real writers do.
Let’s be clear. It doesn’t mean we’re writing good stuff. But we’re practicing and refining our craft.
If you want to annoy a writer tell him that you’ve always thought about writing a book when you’ve never actually had to sweat over a paragraph.
It’s not easy.
Still, that doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable.
When you know what you’re supposed to be doing and you go about doing it, then even the hard work is satisfying and rewarding.
I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Of course I wouldn’t mind a publisher sending me a nice healthy advance check.
That would be pretty inspirational.
You may not be a writer, but you have goals, and tasks, and dreams.
Whatever they may be you already know they’re not going to come to you if you’re just sitting around catching up on your favorite series.
And you already know that the job has to be done whether you’re inspired or not.
Inspiration is great when it’s there.
But perspiration gets the job done.
Time to get to work.