Writing when you're not in the mood.

I know a lot of writer's go through this, myself included. It's not just standard writer's block, it's where you lose your motivation. I recently lost my motivation. All the things going on with work got to me and I stopped editing my nearly finished future release. I also stopped blogging and tweeting. I didn't want to stop writing, I just lost the motivation to do so. I want to be a writer more than I want anything else, but I haven't been focused. I keep telling myself that it's okay. We all go through phases where it's hard to do what we love. In my case I've opened the word document on my computer and just stared at it for about thirty minutes. It's what I've been going through and are currently still going through, but I don't plan on letting it get me down. I'm going to write something each day, even if I don't feel like it. Even if it's just a journal entry. I have to keep the writing juices flowing. I'm going to browse writing blogs and read books, even if it's only to remind myself of my goals. I'm going to read reviews on amazon.com. I'm going to do everything that I was doing. I really need to get back on track, I can not let this set me back.

The thing about deadlines...

Sigh...it's November already. Time to put away the Halloween decorations and start thinking about turkey or turkey alternatives (I'm a vegetarian). It's also the time where I realize that I've missed the deadline that I gave myself. When I decided to become a self-published author I knew that I had to set deadlines for myself. I also know how hard it is for me to work with a deadline. I was doing well until life got in the way. Now I am more than two months behind my deadline. I'm not as organized as I would like to be. If I was more organized I may have been able to finish editing by now. I'm a bit angry at myself for not having my novel finished by now. It's my dream and I'm letting it pass me by. I'm not sure how things would have gone if I would have actually decided to go through a literary agent. I guess I would have had someone pushing me, but I'm not sure if that matters. I've never been good with deadlines. I remember waiting until the last minute to finish school assignments. Now that I'm juggling work, school, and writing I will have to find a balance. I have to push myself to edit, write, and work on pushing my work out to the public.

Treating Writing Like a Job, Because it is a Job.

When I first got into writing I treated it as a hobby (I was only in second grade lol). I think a lot of people still treat it as such. Something they do for fun. Writing is fun, but it's also hard work. You have to edit over and over again. You have to research. You can't just make someone a British solider without doing some research first. You have to sit at the computer, even when you don't want to, type out words until they make sense and then edit them. You have to force yourself to write when you have no inspiration. I remember an episode of Supernatural that featured Chuck. He said that writing was hard work and he would never pick that career on his own. I'm sure a lot of people didn't think about the comment, but writing is hard work. It is fun for a lot of people, but that just means you enjoy what you do. I enjoy writing, I don't enjoy editing. I enjoy making up new worlds and characters, but I do not view it as any less of a job. If anything, it's more work then my 'regular' job.

Is writing easier the second time around, or just when you have a 'fresh' idea?

As I've said before, I'm having trouble editing my work because the idea for something new keeps nagging at me. I've written pages of something new when I'm supposed to be focused on something I've already written. Maybe it's because writing gets easier the more you practice, or maybe it's because the fun part of writing is writing something fresh. When you're editing you're not really adding anything fresh. You're looking at what you've already written and trying to find the errors/see what can be built upon and added to. Maybe my issue is time. Maybe I need to sit down and write for a little while and then focus the rest of my time on editing. I've thought about having a writing day and having an editing day. Something like that could be interesting for me.

It's time for me to sit down and write a blurb

Nothing gives me writer's block more than when it's time to write the blurb. For some reason it's hard for me to write about what my book is about. I know what it's about, I wrote it, but for some reason the words to describe it won't come when I am sitting in front of that blank document. Why is it so hard? Is it because I don't like talking about myself, therefore, I don't like talking about something I've created? Is it because my book is so packed with awesomeness that it's hard to put into words. Maybe it's because I don't know much about marketing, which means I'm not sure what would sell the book. Whatever it is, I need to get over it. I'm editing the final chapters and the book will be ready for publication soon. I feel like I should have done this sooner, so that I would have more time to edit the blurb. I just can't wait until it's done and I have a blurb to represent my work.

Doubts

As a writer I often find myself doubting my work. I think all writer's do, even Stephan King. I think I let my writing doubts hold me back sometimes. Instead of stopping to think about the words on the page I find myself staying away from the computer. I hate when this happens, but I find it hard to get back into the groove of writing. Sometimes I end up staying away from the computer for a week or so. I think this is why I haven't finished anything sooner, that and work. I feel myself questioning if I am good enough or if I should just give up. To give up would be giving up on my dream and the moment I do that will be the saddest moment of my life. Sometimes I wonder if anyone will read what I write, and honestly, it would mean the world if even one person read what I had to say. I know a lot of writers go through this, I just wanted to put it in writing. I thought if I got it off of my chest, it would help me. Maybe I could get rid of some of those doubts.

Do people shop the same way they review books?

Maybe I've been in retail for too long, but I think there's a link between the way people shop and the way they review books. I've recently been reading book reviews of authors who are self-published (like I plan to be). I wanted to know what I should expect when the time comes to release my book into the world. Every review I've read, the good, the bad, and the ugly, have all been like customers I've had. There's the customers that don't want to be bothered, they probably won't review at all. The customers who look at the item from every angle: the reviewers who pick the book apart. The customer who happily asks for suggestions: the reviewer who reads and comments on other people's reviews. I think the customers/reviewers who are open to suggestions are my favorites and that's probably the category I fall under when I shop or review. I'm always looking for something new to read so if you have any suggestions just leave a comment. There's the customer who knows what they want and often leave happy: the reviewer who reads the same types of books or authors all the time. Then there's my least favorite, the customer who finds a blemish and wants something free. This type of customer is equal to a review who isn't reviewing the actual book, but instead something like the font size or formatting. They don't actually review the book, but they do give it a negative amount of stars. I hate seeing that type of review for anyone's book, but I know I'm bound to get a few of those myself. Despite that, I'm still looking forward to starting my journey and living my dreams.

The job I want vs. the job I need

I can't recall a time where I applied for a job because I wanted it, and not because I was in need of a job or a bigger paycheck. As a result, I have grown unhappy with every job I've had in a matter of months. I always feel like I'm stuck and I need to get out there and find something better. I don't know how to explain it, just a feeling like I should be doing better. I know I could do better, but I've never been sure how to approach getting a job I actually want. To be honest, I'm not even sure I know what job I actually want. I had to pick a major when I attended college, but the major I picked isn't something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. The only thing I can see myself doing for the rest of my life is writing, and I'm frustrated with myself for putting my writing off. I have a ebook that's already written, I just have to edit it, but I keep letting things get in the way. From work to my own laziness. I managed to beat the new pokemon game this month, but haven't put in any real time writing. I guess I feel like if I had a job that I actually enjoyed everything else would fall into place.

Dialog

I took a college fiction writing class at a community college last semester. It was actually more like a fiction reading class with a splash of writing thrown in, since we only did three or four writing assignments and we read about twenty stories. I took this class because I believe you can learn something from everyone, but I learned nothing in this class. Well, nothing the teacher taught me. For our first writing assignment we were told to write a 300 word story that was character vs. nature, character vs. the world, or character vs. supernatural. I went against my better judgement and took the easy way out. I wrote a courtroom scene that was mostly dialog. I thought my teacher would run screaming away from anything I actually wanted to write. I had to filter my writing for fear of being feared. Even tame fiction can be twisted into something that it's not. What I mean is, because of all the violence, school shootings, etc., I was afraid to write a story that I might actually like. An innocent piece of werewolf fiction could be frowned upon in a school setting because of the violent content. When my teacher graded the paper she wrote, "Too much dialog, and it's boring." Maybe not in those words, but she wrote them. The next assignment I turned in had maybe two sentences of dialog, but I wrote more along the lines of what I wanted to write (well, the paper was based on a photograph the teacher had chosen for us). My teacher did enjoy that assignment more, but she didn't love it. For the last assignment we were given a 1000 word limit and no boundries, so I finally decided to write about something I actually wanted to write about. I picked a topic that was more tame than werewolves, but was still something that interested me. This time my teacher actually loved it. I wonder if I had just wrote what I wanted in the first place if I would have actually learned something else.

Some nights I don't feel like writing.

Some nights, mostly those that come after a long day at work, I don't feel like writing. By the time I get home I'm tired and I'm sick of people and I just want to take a nap, but sometimes I manage to force myself to write. On those nights I don't write anything profound, just a couple of words, but at least I've written something. Tonight is one of those nights, and I'm about to try to force myself to write a few words.