What you need to do

You need to arrange your life

so that being able to write

is your first priority

(and being able to read

your second).

You need to set aside time

without feeling guilty

you're not earning

a living.

You need to let yourself

enjoy writing... and not 

disparage the process

because nothing comes

of the words you 

put on paper

today.

You need to sit

and think regardless

of what others think

you should be doing,

to daydream, to follow

wherever the path

leads you.

You need to stop trying

to control the process,

to open your heart

and look inside

without flinching

or turning away.

You need to let yourself

feel whatever emotion

you need to feel, to resist

doubt, fear, uncertainty,

to ignore the voice

in your head telling 

you that you have

nothing to say,

nothing of worth

to offer,

no reason to pick up

your pen

or that you're not

smart enough

or imaginative enough

or brave enough.

You need to savor

each day, each moment,

the pen moving across the page

the ink leaving marks behind,

evidence that you are here--

living, breathing,

alive.

 

Long-Distance Swimming

One of the results of writing a novel versus writing a short story is that, aside from the loneliness of the extended stretches of time that you work on your own, you begin to take--by necessity--a longer view of the process.

You can't look to finishing your novel as a form of gratification because the end is too far away. But you can reach a certain number of words or pages each day. You can celebrate crafting a chapter or a scene or a paragraph or a sentence.

Small things add up to larger things over time.

Still, it's easy to lose sight of the long view and forget the goal.

It's easy, too, to mistake the loneliness and silence that accompany the long stretches of isolation as indifference, disdain, and dislike for your work when, really, it's only silence... and, perhaps, your own negative feelings rising to the surface.

Inner critics.

Negative voices.

These critical voices often reflect the belief that unless you have something to show for your effort, the effort itself is worthless.

These are the times when you need to pause and re-examine your goals.

Look up from your desk to double-check the longitude and latitude of where you are in the process.

Sometimes the only way to drown out these voices, these feelings, is to put your head back in the water and keep swimming toward the opposite shore that you set out to reach weeks or months or years before.

But I can't help wonder what it is that keeps you going.

Is it curiosity... or something else... that sustains you over the long distance swim of a novel?

When you get a chance, write and let us know how you manage to swim long distances.

For more on overcoming the obstacles to long-distance swimming, visit:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/01/11/my-first-sale-by-jennifer-donnelly-just-keep-writing/
http://www.ralphkeyes.com/pages/books/hope/excerpt.htm
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id=16458
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=145942
http://sinsofourfathers.com/blog/?tag=novel
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/books/s_487051.html