In an ongoing effort to be accountable to myself I’ve decided to begin – yet again – writing each day on my blog, however to simplify things I’m going to follow a template. It may change from time to time, but basically the plan is to have an ongoing record of my fits and starts at establishing a solid (fiction) writing habit.

My day:

After getting out of bed later than my usual 6:30 (it was 7:00 – 7:30) I did my normal morning routine then finally sat down at about 9:30 or so to do some client work. I try to start by 8:00, but some mornings I’m just not feeling it…

In between writing client work I did the dishes, fed the family, etc., then finally wrapped up client work by 5:30 or so.

Took much longer than it should of, but there ya go…

The writing:

Decided to revise the story I’m working on now Visitor to Blue Lake: A Jazz & Slade Story. I started it in third person, but the first book, Murder in Blue Lake, was written in first from Jazz’s viewpoint. I really enjoyed writing that story and felt that it captured her personality well.

Not that I’d planned it like that, no I’m a pantser (with planner tendencies, yes) but still, it was fun.

And that’s what writing should be. Fun. After all, it’s not rocket science. Nobody is going to die because of something I write. As the very smart Dean Wesley Smith often says, we’re “entertainers” and we should write to entertain ourselves, knowing that others will be entertained too.

So anyway, point is I’m changing the story to first person POV. Shouldn’t be too hard, I’m only about 5 or 6 thousand into it, so with some search/replace help and of course cycling back through it to make the changes I should wrap it up tonight.

Then tomorrow, take off from wherever I leave off today.

Topic of the day:

Persistence.

Yeah, we need it. But, do you think that writers have it any easier now than we did when the gatekeepers were in control?

***lol…”gatekeepers”. Know what comes to mind when I read that? Gargoyles. Don’t know why, but they do.***

But I digress…

The point is that persistence is necessary whether we’re indie publishing, writing for a fiction market or trying to crack New York.

Persistence that even when we think our work sucks…and if it does, so what, keep on writing…practicing…write some more.

Persistence to learn from others further down the road than us. Take the advice they give that makes sense to you, and pitch the rest. Either it’s not a good fit for you, or you’re not ready to hear it yet.

Like the advice from countless people that we MUST USE OUTLINES!!! [imagine an echo here…;-) ]

Can’t tell you how thankful I was when a long time fiction writer, Dean Wesley Smith, said that he “wrote into the dark”. He gave me the freedom to write like I instinctively want to write.

Outlines just makes it all BORING as HELL! 😉

Now, I like to use outlines when I’m writing non-fiction, but that’s where it stops. It just helps the analytical side of my brain get stuff in order.

Writing without an outline “writing into the dark” is scary as hell sometimes, because I think how in the world can this ever make sense, but when I’m stubborn enough to keep writing somehow it does. Then my eyebrows raise and I go, “aha, so that’s what my brain was thinking…”!

What do you think? Have you ever tried writing without an outline?