Do you have any writer buddies?

As a writer, I think you really need writer buddies. A fellow writer who knows what it’s like to slog through a manuscript fifteen times. Or stay up all night debating the point of view of your main character. Or whether or not to use exclamations marks in internal dialogue (DONT! SERIOUSLY!).

I met with my writer friend for happy hour the other day, as we are known to do once a month. J and I are both attending the PNWA Conference coming up next week. We commiserated over anxiety and potential workshops to take. We laughed over people’s responses to learning that you write novels (“You wrote a novel? Why isn’t it published?”).

It’s great to have a sympathetic ear and built-in beta reader for your writing career. I know it helps me work through my writing problems, insecurities and of course, writers block. I highly recommend it. If you are interested in writing, or if you’ve been going it alone at your desk, might I suggest visiting a local writers group? Find one online and go. Just go. Don’t think – do it. You won’t regret it.

A representative LOL cat:

Are you a writer? Do you fancy yourself a novelist, trapped in the body of a toll-taker on the Verrazano Bridge?

Ever since I was small, I remember that I wanted to be a writer. Who wouldn’t? You get to spin stories and people will read them? Sign me up! But, then came the reality. Food costs money, and your English degree in Creative Writing won’t get you any six-figure jobs out of college.

I think choosing to be a writer is a hard choice. I myself still have a day job. It’s a writing job, sure, but I bet my professors from college would endearingly refer to me as a flak. A sellout. It seems that in life, you only have two choices – to give up the idea of being financially secure and throw yourself in to writing the next great American novel by the flame of a candle, or to forget the writing nonsense and get a real job like a grown up.

I say there’s a third option: Work a day job AND write. Yes, I know, you are really busy. Really! Laundry has to be folded, dinner needs to be cooked. Your kids need to be driven to soccer practice. I get that. But if your heart wants you to write, do it. Make the time for yourself, and for your writing.

Prolific writer Danielle Steel claims that she would write once the kids were in bed, or during lunch – whenever she got the time. I know other writers who spend their lunch breaks at work writing long hand. Personally, I write on the weekends when chores are done (and sometimes not done!), and after dinner for an hour each night.

You owe it to yourself. If you want to write, make the time to do it. Don’t wait to retire, don’t wait until the kids are out of the house. Don’t wait for this season of American Idol to finish. Begin to write today. No one can tell the story living in your mind like you can. It doesn’t matter if you ever get published. Do it for yourself.

So, dear reader, you have an assignment. Write two pages tonight, and feel better in the morning. Lather, rinse, repeat.

“The only people who achieve much are those who want [something] so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.” C.S. Lewis

Come on, you can’t disagree with C.S. Lewis.

Speaking of C.S. Lewis, how about a link to buy a beautiful set of the Chronicles of Narnia? A charming addition to any library.