Taking a break from your writing career doesn't mean its broken

I've barely written for the last 3 years, and I haven't blogged in a long time either.  Yet here I am, thinking about what I want to say, carefully choosing my words and remembering how much I enjoy the social media aspect of being a writer.

I was first published way back in 2007, and have been published seven times since.  These days only two of my books are available in e-book form - feel free to check them out!  I'm immensely proud of both of them.

Writing is one of those things that never leaves you.  You can take 3 years off, 10 years... whatever... it doesn't matter it is always there.  The trick is knowing when to stop and when to start, and that question is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

My decision to stop writing was a consciously made one, and the whys-and-wherefores of it would fill a blog post on their own.  Simply put, I burnt out. Big time.  That said, it never occurred to me that I would never write again.  I just knew that for a time writing was not going to be a part of my life.

Then in the middle of last year, the urge to write started to nag.  But I didn't listen, made many excuses, put it off, didn't feel like it, promised myself I'd start tomorrow... this went on for weeks and weeks until a couple of things came together.

First I read The Alchemist - a stunning tale about finding your life's purpose.

Then I had a delightful morning tea with Alyssa Montgomery ... and this led to an invitation to join Breathless in the Bush - putting me right back amongst a group of passionate and knowledgeable writers.

And finally it was the discovery of a woman called Mel Robbins.

Mel's TED talk resonated with me in so many ways, and I immediately grabbed the audio version of her book The Five Second Rule (which I highly recommend, Mel is a talker, not a writer and the audio version of her book works a lot better than the written version).  Well, that book changed EVERYTHING.  Using her techniques I sat down, stopped making excuses, and figured out a plan of what I wanted to do, and how to do it.

Easy huh?

Nope.  Not at all.  I'm still lazy, easily distracted, procrastinating, often napping... but, I'm doing something, every day, towards my writing goals.  I want to write. I want to. I haven't wanted to for the longest time but now the joy is back and I want to.

Taking a break from your writing career, no matter how long or short, doesn't mean its over or broken.  Writing (or music, or quilting, or bog snorkelling... ) is part of who you are, and you can't flick it on and off, it's always there.  But its ok to rest for as long as you need.  It's ok.

Love
Tory x

REVISION COMPULSION

with Dee Scully

Dee Scully's Revision Checklist

Are you a plotter? An obsessive organiser? Do you struggle to move on from one chapter to the next because you just know there is something that “needs to be tweaked” in the words you wrote yesterday?

I am a plotter and an obsessive organiser who is currently struggling to finish my manuscript because I can’t let the last chapter go. I spend most of my time revising what I wrote yesterday or making copious notes about what needs to be fixed at the earliest convenience (usually at the most inconvenient time), because somewhere in the dark recesses of my subconscious, doubts creep in and niggle at my confidence, eroding any possibility of moving on! A little voice inside my head tells me that my character isn’t being true to herself, or the GMC for my villain is weak and dragging my storyline down, etc…

I know what you’re thinking. “Wow! She’s nuts.” And yeah; you’re right. I am. Being obsessive is keeping me from finishing my manuscript and ultimately keeping me from submitting my work and moving on to the next story percolating in the back of my head.

A half-dozen or so published authors have also told me to move on. (Michael Hauge, James Scott Bell, Cherry Adair—I love and admire you all). I’ve tried to comply. I’ve even tried a 12 step program for alcoholics (even though I’m not an alcoholic) and numerous self-help websites for obsessive compulsives (such as Psych Central). They’ve all been very informative and have helped me outside my writing life.

So far, though, nothing has penetrated the thick carapace of my skull. (I’m so sorry Michael, James, and Cherry. I have listened and I am trying.)

Image courtesy of Dee Scully

I’ve recently decided (as of right now) to embrace my nuttiness. Instead of obsessing over my obsessing, I’m just going to go with it…sort of. I’m still going to write my lists and revise every day. After all, what I’ve been doing—trying to follow the path that everyone else has taken—is not working. While I am decidedly nutty, I am not insane.

From here on out I will write a list at the end of each writing session of what I need to work on. The next day I will spend a portion of time working on it, marking off the list what I’ve achieved. When my allotted revision time is up I will move on to the next chapter.

This may not be the best way to write. It may not be the way the greats do it. But it’s the way I will do it. In the end, how I write doesn’t matter. It’s that I do write and that I eventually get to THE END.

Do you follow 'the rules' of how you should write?  Are you hung-up following the rules, or have you learned to follow the beat of your own drummer?

I love to love…myself. It’s not always easy to love me, but who will if I don’t?

I love to laugh…at all the mistakes I’ve made in the past and how I’ve grown from them.

I love to learn…ways to make me a better person. Self-help books like The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman have helped me personally and professionally and even improved my writing!

*For anyone needing help with alcoholism or obsessive compulsion, please check out these websites for more information:
Alcoholics Anonymous
Australian Psychological Society 

Check out my weekly Write NOW memes on Instagram.  Created for writers new and old!

Dee Scully

Historical Romance Author

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Writing Gaols…er, um, I mean…Goals

by Dee Scully

It’s February. Where are you at with your writing goals? 

Yep, we’ve already flipped over two months of the 2016 calendar. Poof! Two months gone. Just like that! 

Image courtesy of YouTube

It’s amazing how time clicks by, isn’t it? One day you’re making goals, the next you’re breaking them.

Ever noticed how close gaol is to the word goal? 

Even with the best of intentions our writing goals get pushed to the side and are all too often forgotten. Every now and again you think of them. Your shoulders slump and you look surreptitiously behind you. You’re certain the goal police are about to nab you. They know you’ve broken the promises you made to yourself at the end of 2015 and they’re just ready to pounce and put you in the shackles you deserve. 

After all breaking writing goals is one of the worst crimes you can commit (as a writer).

Well, never fear. I’m here to give you one last chance to get those goals back on track before the goal police throw you in the clinker for crimes against humanity. Yes, your unfulfilled goals are being likened to crimes against humanity because as long as you're not making those goals work, you’re not living a full and happy life. Further, you’re not blessing the world with the gift of your story! Now that’s a crime if I ever heard of one.

So...go, get your goals out. I mean it. Go get them. I know you’ve written them down somewhere or filed them away on your hard drive and probably not looked at them since, but now’s the time to get them out again.

A lot of us (and I do mean the you and me kind of “us”) have neatly typed them; colour coded them and set them in a pretty little frame. (See below, but…please, don’t judge me.) You might have even stuck them right beside your computer or on your bathroom mirror, somewhere you were sure to see them EVERY day. After all, breaking writing goals is one of the worst crimes you can commit (as a writer) and you wouldn't willingly want to do that!

But somewhere along the way they’ve been covered with a pile of work or splashed beyond recognition with toothpaste.

No matter. Push the books onto the floor and scrape that Colgate off and let’s have a look at them. Let’s remind ourselves what we wanted early in January (and maybe even what we’ve wanted all our lives).

Okay. Got 'em? Cool. Now read them. Read them again. Commit them to memory. Now tear them up. Yes, I mean it. Tear them up.

I’ve got the one sure fire way to get the goal police forever off your back.

No, it’s not a twelve-step program for writers or even a five easy steps to getting your goals back on track. I’m going to give you the one step—the only step—you need to get your writing done. And here it is: write.

Yeah. It’s that simple. Just write.

Now, go do it. Write NOW.

Image courtesy of www.livelifehappy.com 

Simple fact: writing just 500 words a day, for (any) five days of the week, will give you 130,000 words at the end of the year. We’ve lost two months, but that still leaves 44 weeks. Writing five days a week for those 44 weeks will give you 110,000 words at the end of 2016. That’s more than you need for most single title books.

Who’s with me? Who's ready to do the one thing you need to get your book finished? Who's ready to write?

Love to love…watching the beautiful (yet quite squawky) Australian native birds in my front yard.

Love to laugh…at the first writing goals I ever made. (I was going to complete my first manuscript in four months time and have it submitted and published within six months. That was before I knew anything about POV, active v. passive, character arcs and more.)

Love to learn…new crossfit routines. They keep my asthma at bay and push me to keep going even when everything inside me screams “Just quit.”