Writing Isn’t a Game

Writing is entirely too hard to not take seriously.  Like the decision to go on living, the decision to decide between life and quality of life, writing is a choice.  It’s not something we’re called to (though it may call to us, like the siren); it’s not something you do halfway, because maybe you can make it.  You commit to it, the way you commit to a career, to a marriage, to having children.  Because once it gets into your blood, there’s no quitting.

Is writing fun?  All too rarely.  It can be thrilling, heartachingly frustrating, gut check time, and some of the highest elation you’ll know.  But it’s not for fun.  It’s for real.  It’s for grown ups.

I’ve written it before–if you can quit, you should.  It’s just too damned hard.  But, if you can’t, come sit by me.  Let’s share our heartbreaks and successes.  Let’s cheer for one another and mourn for one another and, most importantly, brainstorm for one another.  Let’s inspire one another, knowing at least someone else has been there already and survived it.  Let’s share motivational quotes and pat each other on the back.

• Try this: #amwriting guidelnes.  And big thanks to Johanna Harness for bringing us together.

If you are writing and feel alone, I strongly suggest you join twitter, (add me, because I love following fellow writers and promise to follow you right back), and start joining the #amwriting movement.

It’s a job. It’s not a hobby. You don’t write the way you build a model airplane. You have to sit down and work, to schedule your time and stick to it. Even if it’s just for an hour or so each day, you have to get a babysitter and make the time. If you’re going to make writing succeed you have to approach it as a job.

ROSELLEN BROWN

via AdviceToWriters – Home – You Have to Sit Down and Work.