By Amanda Patterson, creator of Writers Write – How to Write a Book

If you write one page a day you will complete a 365-page novel in a year.

You are crippling yourself by not starting to write. If it seems an overwhelming task to write a whole book, start with an opening paragraph, then a page, then a chapter. Your first sentence is the first step to being published. Most people who want to write have the belief in their creative success systematically driven out of them – by the business world, by their family, their ‘friends’ and their life experiences.

If you were told you were going to die tomorrow, would you regret not having written?

These are the most common excuses we hear at Writers Write:

1. Family: I have children. I’m the family taxi. I have to be there for my husband/wife.
2. Work: I work long hours. I’m too tired after a day at the office. I have to work overtime so that we can afford a new car / bigger house.
3. Time: I’m too busy. I’ll do it tomorrow / next month / next year. I can’t write late at night / early in the morning.
4. General: I’m not inspired. I’m too old/young. I’m too tired/depressed/sick. 
5. Our Favourite: It’s not what you know but who you know in publishing

You can have your book or you can have your excuses. You can’t have both. 

All of the above are obviously important but don’t fool yourself, writers write; pretenders to the throne make excuses. The reasons for not writing are laziness and lack of self-discipline.

Do you really want to become a writer?

Writing is lonely. Writing is hard work. Writing is discipline. There is no quick fix and there is no one to applaud or to criticize you. You will be your own boss and you will have to motivate and reward yourself. And after all of this you will face the possibility of rejection – the dedicated writer will not stop here.

Remember: You have permission to write badly. (In your first drafts, of course)

10 Writers On The Inspiration Myth

‘The curious truth … is that the writer who goes out with the bucket daily seems to provoke the rain.’
Naomi Wolf, The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom From My Father on How to Live, Love, and See, 2005

‘You can’t rely on inspiration. I don’t even believe in inspiration. I just believe in working. Work generates work. What frustrates me horribly is not knowing what I’m going to do next. And so you force something to happen… . You can’t sit around thinking. You have to sit around working.’
David Long, The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction: Inspiration and Discipline, 2007

‘Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration. They are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.’
José Ortega y Gasset, Notes on the Novel, 1925

‘I can’t explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn’t really be a writer.’
Toni Morrison, quoted in Time magazine, January 21, 1998

‘I have learned, as has many another better writer, to summon inspiration to my call as soon as I begin my day’s stint, and not to hang around waiting for it. Inspiration is merely a pretty phrase for the zest to work. And it can be cultivated by anyone who has the patience to try. Inspiration that will not come at its possessor’s summons is like a dog that cannot be trained to obey. The sooner both are gotten rid of, the better.’
Albert Payson Terhune, Writer’s Digest, June 1930

‘All this about inspiration… . I think writing is mainly work. Like a mechanic’s job. A mechanic might as well say he was waiting for inspiration before he greased your car because if he didn’t feel just right he’d miss a lot of the grease points, that he had to feel right up to it.’
E.B. White, The New York Times, August 2, 1942

‘There are those … who think that the man who works with his imagination should allow himself to wait till—inspiration moves him. When I have heard such doctrine preached, I have hardly been able to repress my scorn. To me it would not be more absurd if the shoemaker were to wait for inspiration, or the tallow-chandler for the divine moment of melting.’
Anthony Trollope, An Autobiography, 1883

‘What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one’s nose, taking shortcuts.’
Italo Calvino, Cybernetics and Ghosts, November 1969

‘I’ve always disliked words like ‘inspiration.’ Writing is probably like a scientist thinking about some scientific problem or an engineer about an engineering problem.’
Doris Lessing

‘And I think what I’ve always recognized about writing is that I don’t put much value in so-called inspiration. The value is in how many times you can redo something.’
John Irving, National Book Award Interview, June 3, 2005

from Writers Write

Combating Writer’s Block

Advice by Genre

Thriller Writers
When writer’s block strikes kill someone or blow something up.

Crime Writers
When writer’s block strikes describe the main character getting drunk and wallowing in self pity.

Mystery Writers
When writer’s block strikes introduce a red herring.

Romance Writers
When writer’s block strikes introduce new character with rock hard abs.

Literature Writers
When writer’s block strikes describe a tree in intimate detail.

Fantasy Writers
When writer’s block strikes have a talking dragon appear.

Sci-fi Writers
When writer’s block strikes cut and paste physics article from Wikipedia into your novel.

Horror Writers
When writer’s block strikes cut and paste autopsy reports into your novel.

Paranormal Writers
If you already have vampires, ghosts and werewolves in your novel, introduce ninjas and pirates as characters.

If you are really stuck after all of these ideas, then there is no novel in existence that can’t/couldn’t be improved by the addition of pirates and/or ninjas.

Text Reblogged from Tyson Adams
Source for Image

by Writers Write

Finish your novel before you send your query letter!

10 Ways To Get Out Of Your Writer’s Rut

There is no such thing as writer’s block.

I don’t believe in Writer’s Block. I believe writers simply get stuck when they’re writing. There are many reasons why this happens. At Writers Write, we always encourage writers to plot their book before they start writing. You need to know where you’re going before you begin.

I have also interviewed more than 100 authors. Most of these writers have a plan, they have a writing routing, they are open to learning, and they know how their book is going to end. They don’t believe in waiting for the muse. They believe in hard work.

These are the most common reasons why writers stop writing.

10 things writers struggle with when writing a book

1. They avoid writing uncomfortable or difficult scenes.
2. They can’t get beyond the synopsis.
3. They can’t seem to finish anything.
4. They don’t know how to start the book, the next scene, the next chapter.
5. They enrol for new courses but they take the same old ideas with them.
6. They haven’t written a synopsis.
7. They keep on repeating what they’ve already written.
8. They talk about writing but never start.
9. They write their characters into corners. 
10. They write, edit, rewrite, and edit the same scene instead of moving on.

Once we identify these problems, I am able to help my students.

Here are 10 simple ways to solve these problems

1. Change the sex of your protagonist or antagonist.
2. Change viewpoints if you’re stuck. Write it from another character’s perspective. Try writing in a different viewpoint. Write in first person if you always write in third person.
3. Commit to the writing life. Writers write.
4. Enrol in a writing class. Leave your old, tired ideas at home. 
5. Make to do lists for your character. Or send your character shopping for a character he hates.
6. Play the what if? game for your character. Rewind and get the story back to a point where your character can move on with the action.
7. Promise yourself a meaningful reward when you finish.
8. Stop editing. Carry on writing. You can fix the draft later. You’re looking at a minimum of eight rewrites anyway - plenty of time for editing.
9. Use a timer for the scenes you find difficult to write. Just do it.
10. Write a synopsis. Set up a daily writing routine. Set aside a minimum amount of time or commit to writing a number of words.

by Amanda Patterson

From Writers Write

Writer’s Block Comic VIA

(Source: writers-write-creative-blog.posterous.com)

Writer’s Block - Motivational Folding Cube