Time to talk about taking time to write.

Now that beta readers are starting to send in their feedback for “The Devil and Casari: Ad Hominem”, I feel like it’s time to send a message to those who have always wanted to write a book but aren’t really sure how (because clearly I’m an expert now).  There are tons of great strategies out there involving character-first development, plot organization, visualization, chunking…if you can think of it, chances are someone’s used it as a writing method. As for me, whenever anyone asks, I try to always give the same advice. Ready?  Here it is:

Put pen to paper.

Conversely:

Put fingers on keys.

Got it?

Seriously, that’s about it.  I mean, that’s a start, and the journey of a thousand steps and all that, right?  I once read that the best way to succeed at something was to fail over and over again until you stopped failing, and so it is with writing.  You can have the best idea in the world, but until you put pen to paper or fingers to keys, you’ve got bupkis. Want to write a military thriller but don’t know how it’ll end?  It won’t if you don’t start. Have a great romance novel all bottled up inside looking for the perfect meet-cute?  Put fingers to keys and let the characters tell you how to get there.  Need a third example to really drive the point home?  Write it you’re darn self!

Here’s the thing: appreciate your failures, because every stop on that road is a milestone on your path to success. As to those milestones…they aren’t telling you how much further you have to go, they’re telling you how far you’ve already gone.  To quote Brandon Sanderson, “Journey before destination”.  It’s not where you’re going, it’s how you get there.

See, the place you think you’re going to doesn’t exist anymore…if it ever did. Success as a location simply doesn’t exist because, well, it’s always moving. If I could just get an agent, if I could just get on that top Amazon list, if I could just sell 1, 10, 100 books, then I’m a success. Problem is, success is always moving. To me, it is like light from a star born billions of years ago but just now getting to us; that star as we see it no longer exists and, in fact, is likely already dead and gone, exploded into something magnificent or collapsed into something dense and impenetrable. (Note to self: do post comparing success to stars like this.)  Either way, the point is simple: success isn’t where someone else tells you it should be, it’s wherever you are in your journey on the road.  Putting pen to paper or fingers to keys gets you on the road; the sheer act of writing makes you a successful writer.  So stop reading and start writing.

Seriously, stop.

Go away.

Write.