I’ve been a journalist and a fiction-writer-in-training for many years now, and I don’t feel as though it’s getting any easier with the passage of time. I’ve written so much and I’ve met so many nonfiction deadlines for daily newspapers; and yet, every time I sit to write, that all too familiar pit in my stomach comes along, and I’m left wondering: “Am I going to be able to finish this ______?” (fill in the blank with task).
It is different to be sitting in a newsroom, surrounded by other reporters and working under duress, on someone else’s schedule, writing something short.
Writing a book is completely contrary to the daily grind of print journalism. When you’re writing a book, fiction or nonfiction, you’re striving for quiet, solitude, and space to think. You’re thinking of a narrative arc and character development and structure.
But it has taken me a long time to understand that it’s really not all that different. Writing is writing, and the key is not what you’re writing but that you’re writing. Every day. It’s the practice of writing that is what sustains you.
As a night person trapped in a “day world” with children, I’ve also found that morning is really the only time to write. It’s a habit, but a good one, to get up in the morning and work for a bit, get your pages of work done (as immortalized by Julia Cameron in her book, The Artist’s Way) and then do whatever else you need to do.
So, what are you working on? And what time are you setting the alarm for tomorrow, so you can get busy and develop a habit that will sustain your writing life?
Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan (who is sad right now because for her, March Madness is over already) and will be reading some of her work on April 9 at the Sacramento Poetry Center in CA.
Devi, I’m a day person and for me, the ONLY time to write is the morning (morning is the best time for nearly everything). Before everybody, even the dog, is up.
Not that I don’t make notes during the day, I do, at times. But if I’ve written in the morning, I can feel a bit content and relaxed when going through the rest of the day.
Melanie
Devi, I’m loving your posts.
John Lescroat told us at Left Coast Crime that if we can’t write a page a day to look for other work. He’s on his 23’rd book. That means writing every day, which is challenging. I’m best out of the house away from all the distractions. I also find that when I’m writing my mind stays with what I’m writing about regardless of where I am, so I can carry my coffee shop experience with me all day.
guess that page a day can be a deadline of sorts.