aag

LOL - it’s like dating the boy your parents would most hate ;)

Time to get writing, I think……

oh man
oh man

awesome!

yeah, i think you can.

I highly recommend reading The War of Art to help with motivation. Extraordinarily fast read (you could do it in a few spare hours) and super smart and motivating.

I think that’s the conflict we face so often - how can we be ourselves, when we know that will probably upset others? It’s a struggle, and one I’ve faced many, many times over the last eight years. Almost all of the real writers I know are stay at home parents much of the time, writing through naptimes and television time. :) It’s worked for them and I know it can work for you, too.

What better motivation do you need? :-)

Good luck, though I think you’ll do splendidly.

Your writing on this site is consistently interesting and engaging. I look forward to your every post. And now I look forward to your book.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha. Excellent. You are scared of writing and failure? Hey you must be a …. writer! Seriously, the definition of writer might not involve actually using words in a pretty way (though, many of us do), so much as just being terrified into pieces by the thought of putting words together in a pretty way. Congratulations. :) lol :)

Have you read ‘Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Life and Writing’ by Anne Lamott? It’s a great read, with lots of concrete suggestions and lots and lots of her honest sharing of the insane negative voices all creative people have to contend with. She’s hysterically neurotic, and toally relatable.

Also - you’re a terrific writer. and i don’t know any writer who actually works in an office. that’s just ass-backwards.

having written a phd thesis i was terrified to defend and spent a dozen years in both academia and industry creating things to be ripped to shreds by ‘the powers that be’, i can tell y…

it can be done. it’s scary, and it never stops being painful, but it’s do-able.

go for it. as above - you are a terrific writer.

peace

b

Writer’s are real people;
http://writersplot.typepad.com/writersplot/2008/08/standing-at-the.html

No one ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have tried while trying to write one.-Robert Byrne

Honestly, the best writing advice I’ve ever seen/heard/read was ‘No matter what, write something each day, even if it’s only 2 words on the page.’ Heinlein, Ellison and King all said it in different ways, but the sentiment is the same. WRITE something. Don’t worry about good/bad, just write it.

Can you write a book that will horrify your mom? Yeah. Easily. She’s horrified by your website, isn’t she?

Hahah, that is awesome. For you, I cannot suggest a better motivation. Once you’re done, I wanna read it.

Also, once you’re done, you better tell us what your mom says afterwards (if she does say anything).

ALSO, on the writing thing, it doesn’t matter that you’re writing in your kitchen on a sandy laptop with kids screaming in the background, what’s important is that you’re writing. What a lot of people have already said, it’s better to write something than to write nothing. At this point, don’t obsess about the quality or the quantity, just the point of it (which is to write).

Keep plugging on with it. And do a quick word count on your blog - you’ve already written a book.

A friend of mine says he can’t remember writing his book. He remembers sitting at a desk with a screaming baby beside him and playing a lot of Tetris, and somehow a book was there at the end of the year.

Omg, if I had Tetris on my computer I’d never get anything done. :) –aag

The bit about your mother made me laugh :)

I’ve been trying to motivate myself by reading like a maniac this summer. I read good books, and think how much joy they give me, and how much I would like to create something as valuable… and then am stymied by my inability to come up with a plot.

Then I read crappy chick-lit for light relief, and KNOW that I could do better - and am strangely encouraged by the fact that absolutely rubbish books can still, clearly, find a publisher.

Whatever works!

I want you to know that I am friends with several people who make their living writing. Books, magazine articles, short stories, and the like.

NONE of them write under the circumstances you described with a silent, dedicated space.

Some of them can’t write at a keyboard at all, they have to create their stories with a pen (or pencil!) and paper, then either grind out typing it up themselves, or hiring somebody to translate the chicken-scratch.

Then there’s the authors who FINISH their books only to keep messing with them out of a sense of anxiety that it’s not good enough… only to finally turn it in past the deadline and have the publisher change stuff at the last minute anyway.

Robert Fulgum (and no, he’s not in my circle of friends) writes books that are nothing more than a collection of anecdotes (not unlike your blog.)

We’re behind you! We believe in you! We wait breathlessly for your next installment! We’d pay money for more of the same in a stack of bound paper!

go go go!!!

I will buy it and read it even if it is just your blog tidied and bound!

I’m a writer, and my desk is part of a former closet in my house. And my computer is five years old.

So if you write this book and it really sucks, then what? You go back to your regularly scheduled life. But you’ll never know if you don’t do it.

An agent wouldn’t have contacted you if were a bad writer. Not everyone has this chance. Seize it! :)

I’ll preorder if that’s any more motivation for you:)

I’ll be the first one to buy it! :)

You are a REALLY good writer, aag!

It doesn’t matter where you write, it only matters that you do. Read “The Right To Write”, by Julia Cameron.

I wish a literary agent was knocking on my door ;)
xo~ sadie
confessionsfrommyopenmarriage.blogspot.com/

Oh, puh-leez!

You’re a great writer on the brink of fame and fortune. (Please, please, please don’t let it go to your head and you forget us back here.)

And now you have the motivation. Heh.

As to your environment, let’s just say Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22 on a card table in the middle of his cramped living room while his extended family played and raged around him.

*is bemused*

Hon, this is how “real writers” write: surrounded by children and chaos (and chickens, if you’re me), and a pay-the-bills job, and an ex who maybe pays the child support, maybe on time, so that maybe you can pay the water bill …

I bailed on a piece for an anthology last winter. I felt terrible — such a failure, such a “bad girl” etc — until I gave myself permission to let go the things that were causing me more stress than joy. Since then I’ve written some other pieces which are far better than the dregs I was pulling up then.

Life it too short: if what you’re writing or how you’re writing simply isn’t working, then change it up until it does work. What you end up with will be far better, for the effort. It just might not bear much resemblance to what you had set out to write in the first place.

“Only good writers turn out books … and I’m definitely not a good writer.”

I encourage you to discard that notion immediately because it is just simply wrong. Many, many bad writers get published. Just look at the remainders piles (meaning the books for a $1 or less) and there’s a testament to the number of bad books that get published.

If an agent wants to vet a book of yours with publishers, then there’s substance to your writing that he/she sees and you should take that for what it is. Agents do not waste time on revenue-less ventures.

Good luck, hun.

Eve

If you’re really looking for inspiration I’d suggest reading Neil Gaiman’s blog. He occasionally shares tidbits but usually comes back to the standards of “Write what you know” and “Write the way YOU write, not the way someone else does.”.

I just read an article about Stephenie Meyer- an author who’s tween vampire series is said to be the new Harry Potter. She, too, works amid the chaos of many children– and she is absolutely a “real” writer. You can do this.

And here I thought that *I* was the only one who used that as a motivation to write! ;)

How fab! You have the talent, you have the ideas, and now you have the motivation (which made me giggle). Now, all you need is the confidence. Go for it.

But you ARE a good writer, or I wouldn’t be reading your blog every day. I hate to burst your bubble, but I don’t read it for *just* the sex.

You do not have to be a great writer, if you have a great editor. In fact, the best writers are often the ones who can trust their editors to make their manuscripts sing. I’ve worked in the publishing field for years, and I can attest to this fact. No need for fear. Get writing that shocking book! I cannot wait to read it.

And I am also battling a fear of failure. I’m actually in therapy right now to overcome it, and it’s working. Not suggesting you need therapy — just want to voice my solidarity & support, one talented but procrastinating woman to another.

I am with the last response, the sex drew me in the door, but the WRITING is what keeps me coming back every day!

Besides, the JOY of being a writer is that your job suddenly does not have to conform to any preconceived notion of schedule, or order, or commuting, or offices, or anything else in the Dilbert zone!

When I was a teenager, and I was facing the fear of failure about asking GIRLS to go out with me, my father gave me the best piece of advice I have ever gotten: He asked me to imagine the worst possible outcome to asking a girl out, ridicule, embarrassment, etc. He told me that the worst outcome is not very likely, but he asked me if I could face that prospect for the risk of success! I crashed and burned many times following that advice, but I was successful too, and the success is definitely worth the risk.

Jump in with no reservations. It is like love, you can’t be tentative, you can’t just dip your toe in the water, and make excuses. You have to let go of your fear and dive in and work your ass off make a go of it.

DO IT!

just the inspiration you needed - go for it :)

You’re an excellent writer.

To horrify one’s mother is inspiration enough to write an entire series of books.

Git ‘r done!

None of the published authors I know personally have a dedicated space to write. They just write when ever and where ever they get the chance. The only key to being a successful writer is to write something every day. A habit you have already cultivated with your wonderfully written blog.

I believe in you, AAG, I bet you can write the most horrifying-to-mother book of all time.

As a long time silent reader, allow me to say this:

Real Writers get calls from editors and agents about books.

You’re way a head of most of the rest of who want to be Real Writers, hon. I’m sure you can knock a book out, mother horror or no.