Writers—Disciplined?

Maybe the title of the post made you smile, the first thought being writers are the greatest procrastinators.  And while it’s true that we have the ability to network for hours, and let anything push our writing further along in a day (even doing the dishes), writers are a disciplined bunch.

If we weren’t disciplined, first drafts would never be finished or seen through to the end.  In fact, I’d go as far to say that writers are a very hard working group of people.  We sacrifice time from family and friends to write, to edit, to pursue our passion—but that’s okay because we love writing.

Now if you took the love of writing out of the recipe that would make an author, it would like leaving yeast out when you’re trying to make raised bread.  There would be no success.

So we’ve established writers are hardworking, the question is can we go to the extreme with it?  Does our passion outweigh other important things in our life?  Or are things tilting the other way are circumstances or situations interfering with our ability to focus on our passion?  Do negative attitudes from around us, or from within, critique us to silence?

And here’s a question:  Do you have as much joy and passion for writing now as you used to?

If you hesitate to answer the question, narrow in on what is making your impulse response no.  Is it writing itself or the business of writing?  Have you allowed obsession over sales figures to have a power of your self-worth as a writer? 

Root back to the core of your writing passion. 

We have the choice as to which direction our life will go, and on a smaller level how each day and each interaction will go.  While it’s true we encounter unpleasant conflicts in life, it’s what we do with these that matter.  (Think of the cliché: “if you’re given lemons, make lemonade”.)

Here are some tips to reignite a spark of writing passion:

Choose to be positive.

As mentioned on this blog before, there can be a lot of negative influences around us.  Like the post So You Wrote a Novel--Big Deal? shows a lot of people will shrug their shoulders when you tell them this, or offer “oh, that’s nice”.  They assume you woke up one day and just thought you’d put words to paper; they don’t realize it’s your passion.

Don’t let these people have power over you.  YOU control YOUR life, YOUR passions.  No one can dredge that from your soul—unless you allow them to.

Choose to learn from obstacles.

There’s no way around it, we will face obstacles.  It is what we do with them.

Do we let every hiccup get us down?  Do we let larger setbacks stop the pursuit of our passion?

If so, I’m sad for you and hope this post will help reignite your passion.  We have to utilize these conflicts and make them work for us.  Instead of focusing on the negative, “I give up”, focus on the positive:  what can I learn from this?  In looking at things this way we empower ourselves, not the situation.

Choose to be unwavering in the pursuit of your passion.

Building on the previous point, by empowering ourselves, we are not expelling our energy in vain.  We will have energy to pursue our passion.  We will make it happen!  And when we make it happen, we shine!

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Here are a couple of good posts I’ve come across among my networks recently that also discuss this topic:

Not Giving Up, Even When You’re Giving Up by Sonia G Medeiros

Unlocking Your Great Future—5 Keys to Writing Success by Kristen Lamb