Showing Up Every Day

 

I’ve been trying to get my writing career, such as it is, moving forward in a speedier manner.

Oh, hell, let’s be honest.  I’ve just been trying to get my writing career moving forward, period.

That means, my dears, that I have to write.  I have to produce.  People are not going to read books I have blowing through the wheat fields of my mind.  They tend to want to have the words typed down somewhere.

For me, the most important thing is simply showing up every day.  And not just showing up every day, but showing  up every day for a sufficient amount of time to actually get work done.  Showing up every day is the best thing I can do if I really want to write.

I’ve found that it’s really easy to skip one day, then two.  Then the two days become two weeks or two months.  Then, when I finally talk myself into sitting back down at the computer, I stare at the screen, sluggish and blank.  It’s as if the pipe that connects me to my muse has gotten filled with gunk over the time I wasn’t writing, and it needs to be flushed out.

Once I reach that state, I have to push myself to stay at the computer, force myself to take one shuddering step after the other.  Finally after an hour or two (or three or four) the words start to flow again.  It’s as if I’ve poured Draino down my drain.

But if I show up every day, the words keep flowing.  It may be that the words I’m writing aren’t, well, good, but they’re at least moving.  And if they move, they will eventually find their way.

So I say that, no matter your creative pursuit, you have to show up every day.  You have to put in your time.  You have to keep your pipes clean.  You have to keep the flow moving.

Because if you stop, you’ll get full of gunk.