If you missed part one of this post on Friday, be sure to check it out.
I'm a planner. I've always been a planner, and I always will be a planner. I like to have every detail set up perfectly before I begin something. And I hate it when things don't go according to plan.
I like to-do lists and color coded planners and everything to be in the right place at the right time.
To be successful at something, be it a career, a class, or even a road trip, you need to have a plan. You need to be intentional about making that plan and you need to be disciplined in sticking to that plan if you want to be successful.
I saw this throughout my college career. My fall semester of my senior year, I had to write a 5000-6250 word paper. The final result ended up being 32 pages. That's a lot of pages, a lot of words, and a lot of sources. That's not something you can write on a whim.
There's a lot of papers I wrote on a whim in college. Several, I did quite well on. There's one in particular that I remember, though, that didn't end so well. It was my first semester of school and I decided it would be oh so smart to procrastinate a 12-15 page research paper (research included) until two days before it was due. Oh...and did I mention I hadn't written an outline either? Or really even thought about what I was going to write? You can imagine how that ended (not well).
My senior seminar paper was a different story. I had chosen my sources well in advance. I knew my topic. I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I had pages and pages of notes. I had an annotated bibliography and three drafts of an outline. I met with my professor (who also happened to be my academic advisor) countless times. During the final week before my paper was due, I spent hours every single night holed up in a back corner of the library writing, revising, deleting, and rewriting until I felt my paper was perfect. In the end, I didn't get an A, but that was more due to my professor and mine's difference in opinion about what created a viable argument than anything else. But I really didn't care that I didn't get an A. I was proud of that paper. I knew it was a good piece of writing and something that I would be happy to share with other people (which was good, because a lot of my friends wanted to read it).
My other paper, I wasn't so proud of. In fact, when I turned in that paper and people asked me how it went, my response was, "I don't even want to know what I got on that paper, because I know it wasn't good." I knew it wasn't good because I hadn't planned. I wasn't intentional and disciplined to work on my writing so that I would get a good grade, and as a result I wasn't successful.
And I'm realizing more and more that that's what I have to do with my writing, especially if I want to make it a career.
You don't write a book on a whim. You write a book by planning. By writing outlines, character descriptions, writing, rewriting, deleting, and rewriting some more. Sometimes you scrap a page. Sometimes you scrap a character. Sometimes you scrap four chapters. But you write and you read and you write some more and you read some more. (Unless, of course, you're E.L. James who apparently never thought it would be a good idea to reread and edit what she wrote.)
And so I'm making a plan. Just like I made a plan for my fitness (or rather chose a plan already made), I'm making a plan for my writing. Instead of saying, "I'll blog today if I feel like blogging," I'm going to brainstorm. I'm going to plan what to write and when it will be published so I make sure I'm always writing.
I'm going to make a list of places I want to be published one day, and I'm going to actively brainstorm ideas for articles so that I can (hopefully) get myself published sooner rather than later.
I'm going to be more active about promoting myself so that people become familiar with who I am and what I want to be as a writer.
I'm going to seek the advice of other successful writers and pick their brains. I'm going to ask them what it was like writing their first book or article or whatever. I'm going to ask them what they did in the early days of their careers. I'm going to ask them what was hard and what was easy. And I'm going to make sure I take their advice seriously.
I'm going to write a book. Even if I think it's awful. Even if an editor thinks it's awful. Even if the plot seems super cliche. Even if I end up hating it and never letting anyone else read it. Just to prove to myself that I can write an entire book.
I'm going to cut back on the unnecessary expenses like eating out and personal spending in order to save the money necessary to take classes with the Christian Writer's Guild. I'm going to save the money so that one day I can go to Writing for the Soul and perhaps (hopefully) get an agent or an editor or at the very least some valuable lessons and feedback from talented professionals in the industry.
So you're going to notice some changes around here in the near future. I'm going to get back to why I started writing in the first place -- which is to grow closer to my Savior. That doesn't mean that the fun posts will stop. You'll still get to hear about some of the crazy antics of Office Boy and random stories about my sometimes very awkward life, but there will be much more content that covers more serious topics, if you want to call them that, and a lot of them will have to do with my faith.
I'll also begin to start posting some excerpts from fiction I'm working on, and I hope that you all will provide me with your honest feedback on it.
I'll be revamping my website and facebook page and there will probably be a little bit of construction going on on the blog as well, so bear with me over the next couple of weeks as things get a little crazy.
I'm really excited for this. I know it's going to be difficult. I know there will be times when I just don't feel like writing at all or producing the words feels like trying to walk through molasses, but I know that I'll get there sooner or later. And who knows, maybe one day you'll check out the NY Times Best Seller list and see my name up there.
I'll just keep reminding myself of what Office Boy said to me the other day, "You turned me into an entire saga. You can write a book."
Here's hoping anyway, right?
What are ways that help you stay motivated? Are there any tips and tricks that assist you in writing even when you don't feel "inspired"? Even if you're not a writer, how do you stay focused on your bigger picture goals while working on the little things?
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