Johnny's Post

Hello, reader.

Carley Anne, the original creator and author of this Blog, "The Writing Spirit," is unable to communicate with her fellow writers and readers this week, as we are now half-way through with National November Writer's Month, and she can be located somewhere far, far away with no internet connection, lost in a writing coma.

No fear, readers, this is a good thing.

For those of you who are also taking the NaNoWriMoQue (also known as the National November Writer's Month Quest, which is a special little something I made up myself), then you probably understand what exactly could possibly be going on in young Carley's mind at this very moment: doubt, fear, insecurity? Probably.

But she also came upon a few writing gems this month, and has asked me, as her personal scribe (I wear many hats, it would seem), to share with all of you.

First of all, Great Writers (a term that is not loosely granted upon a writer of words), do not wait for inspiration to strike. There is no magical concoction of happenings that create the perfect balance of inspiration, ingenuity, and grammatical perfection.

If you wait around for Perfection, you will be waiting around until the day you die, with nothing to show for it.

Young Carley heard a rumor that, whenst writing with the intentions of writing a great deal of words in a small amount of time, there is no need to have perfection. You don't have to travel to a third-dimension of wonderful writing in order to write good work!

Truth: there are days when writers feel like they write [insert negative adjective]. It's like fighting against Writer's Block. But here's the thing of it: if you persevere (which is a fancy word that means sticking-with-it), writing on even though it's painful and you know it sounds stupid and you're thinking why-am-I-a-writer-arrrrrrrrrg- then when you look back and compare some of your "good work" with that "painful work," you will not be able to tell a difference.

With this in mind, the draft you're working on is a draft. You need to get the story down, and then pat down the details to their core, verses doing it the other way around. Keep Elmore Leonard's words in mind: "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

More advice: try something new.

Also, push yourself. You know what I mean. Do better. Get going. Stop procrastinating.

If being a writer is what really want, and if you want to offer up something beautiful and worthwhile to this Great Book-deprived world, you will have to fight for it, learn from it, and become a better writer because of it.

If you love to write, this is good news. Writers should love a challenge, even if it scares them slightly. Or more than slightly.

So write. No matter what, I guess. I don't know for sure, she was a little vague on the details.

I'll try to wake her up, but when one is in a writing coma, one does not come back to life painlessly. For the waker or the woken.

Wish me luck.

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“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." -Ephesians 4:2-3