Life is still a mass of confusion due to the delayed depart from the dayjob, a day of total freak-out when I thought I screwed something up and might have fallen into an identity theft scam (omigosh – SO scary), both of my kids having their own personal brand of melt-downs, and me still being sick. How does a writer write though all of that?
Well sometimes they don’t.
But I am trying and that’s where this week’s Writing Tip comes from. It works for writing and it works for life. You simply fake it. If you act like a writer you become a writer. (Note that I am not saying GREAT writer or even a PUBLISHED writer but if you’re in the middle of your own melt-down what usually matters most is getting back to getting words on the page again.)
How do you fake the writing? You start by showing up at your writing place, wherever that might be, instead of ignoring it. You write A LOT of drafts. You let yourself write crap because at least you are writing. You play typist, typing in passages of someone else’s book until you feel the urge to change it.
Just play make-believer for a little while. Fake it til you make it. Pretend you are a writer and your mind will help you create your own reality.
You have NO IDEA how much I needed to read this today.
Well yeah, then I’m glad I posted it.
It’s a little bit harder to fake revision, lol, but girl, I’m gearing up.
I love this post! Can I link this on page? Pleease?
Link away, my dear!
Let’s see, how could one fake revision?
Actually, I do that when I type in someone else’s book that I don’t like, or don’t like the ending of, or something like that. I actually save books for me to use for thi.
Like last night I finished reading an ARC of something that didn’t grab me from the beginning and went downhill from there. (Normally I wouldn’t have finished it at all but a publisher friend sent it to me and I felt compelled to finish the whole thing though I have no idea what I will say when asked about it.)
So I’ll start typing a scene in from this book and along about the third or fourth paragraph I will usually be overwhelmed with the desire to fix what is wrong with it. Once I start that, I’m revising and I can go back to my own stuff.
Yes I play silly little mind games like this with myself all the time.
Thanks for the inspiration, you two! I’ve linked to you both, and then added a little more to the manure pile. 🙂
Good things come from the stinky stuff.
We can all make cow pies together! Yeehaw.
I love it. Sometimes I feel my whole writing career has been built on this brand of faking it. :>) Most of what comes out is awful, but every once in a great while…
Oh I completely agree with everyone here. Like I posted on jen’s LJ. I swim in crap…
Just trying to find the pile of gold in it all!