WRITING SUCCESS THAT DOESN’T SUCK EVERY DAY

Asking anyone about their writing success is like asking if they won anything on their trip to Las Vegas.

Everyone’s a winner when they get back home.

“Best trip ever. Paid for itself.”

Along with other various and assorted bulls!t.

Writing success is easier to track, easier to explain, yet still a gamble.

You are a successful writer if . . .

You get up every day at five in the morning, log into twitter to say hello and prove to yourself that you reach out more than you give yourself credit for.

Credit for getting up early? Check.

Credit for having something to say to the void? Check.

Working on your writing and editing skills?

Why else get up early unless it’s to move the pile?

In this case the pile is doubt and uncertainty. You may ask yourself, ‘Why do I even bother?’

That’s not the question at five in the morning, though.

Better to ask ‘who do you want to be’ for that particular day. How do you want to remember the day with you in it?

Remains Of The Day

Fitness fan gets up early to exercise.

They warm up hard at home, benching sets from 135 to 205, then go to the gym for sets at 225 and tell people “That’s my warm-up weight, bro.”

Grandpa gets up early to text everyone he’s made it through the night, even though there was little doubt.

No more doubt than anyone he texts.

“I remember listening to your Grandpa tell me, looked me right in the eyes and said he was afraid to go to sleep because he didn’t know where he’d wake up.

“What an awful thought, but he’d just moved from his assisted living place to the hospital after he fell off the toilet and hit his head. Then it was long-term rehab. We didn’t know where he was every second.

“He was afraid to go to sleep and told Grandy. Now she’s afraid.

“You know the rest of the story.”

Writing Success Gets Up Early

Checking the notes jotted down from the subconscious in the middle of the night with my wife asleep next to me.

Except no notes. Again.

Come on, subconscious.

Remembering the theme of the last post was ‘permission.‘ Statistics show two readers.

Giving permission to never use that theme again.

Besides, we all know permission. Like a permission slip, a get-out-of-jail card.

What’s the most important part of permission? The authority of the person granting it.

Anyone can grant permission, few enforce it well.

A sure way to enforce permission for writing success is writing on a schedule.

Make a schedule and stick to it. No mystery.

You never know who will hear your voice, but no one hears anything if you don’t try.

What if your voice, your rhythms, made a difference to someone new in Needles? Or lost in Copperopolis?

You helped someone in Atwater start reading again?

Those are quirks that happen when you make writing a priority. Call it priority writing.

I call it an important part of the day, with a will to survive on its own, a reflection on the missed moments growing smaller in the rearview mirror.

Last word goes to Gatsby:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.“

Keep rowing? I think it means keep rowing while we’re getting swept away?