I’m going to be honest here: I don’t feel like writing today. It has nothing to do with block. I’m still working on Codename: Fairyland quite happily. What I mean is, I don’t want to write this post today.
But Sunday is when I write my blog, according to the schedule that I set for myself. In addition to the regular day, I even set a schedule of topics for myself so that I’d never have to sit down at the computer and struggle for what to write about.
Even so, I don’t want to write this post today.
So what’s a boy to do?
I thought about simply not writing a post today. I’ve got my followers and I get my likes, but I don’t have any delusions of grandeur, thinking that folks spend their Sundays in anticipation of that notification that I’ve posted. Even so, I have my regulars and it hits the serotonin when they like what I’ve written.
But that’s not why I started doing this in the first place.
When I came back to writing, I decided I wanted to Get Serious. That meant treating writing like a job. That was why I set the weekly schedule and rotation of topics for this blog: as a way to set clear expectations for myself and then hold myself accountable to those expectations. I think the hardest thing about writing is that, when you’re starting out, you have no one waiting on you. That makes it really easy to lose your drive, to start making excuses, and eventually, you realize that you can’t remember the last time you wrote anything except a grocery list.
I didn’t want to go down that road again. It was just too heartbreaking.
I have a day job that I go to five days a week for forty hours. I don’t always want to go. In fact, I often don’t want to go. That usually only lasts until I’m there, then momentum takes over. Of course, the worst days are the ones that I didn’t want to go in the first place, don’t want to be there while I’m there, and am in such a sour mood by the end of it that leaving doesn’t bring a balm of relief, only the dread of knowing I have to be back at it tomorrow.
Even on those worst days, I still manage to get stuff done. It’s not always what I want to do and not always my best work. But it doesn’t have to be because there’s always the next day to do a little better.
That’s the kind of consistency that I wanted to bring to my writing life. Because there’s a difference between a hobby and a job.
Last night, I went to an indie rock show to support a friend’s band. This was my first indie show since I was in a band over twenty years ago. Back then, I thought we were Serious Musicians and that we were going to Make It Big. With the benefit of hindsight, I realize that I didn’t take it very seriously at all. And I realized this because of the unsolicited advice I thought about giving my friend after the show:
You’re not here to party. You’re here to work. That should be your mindset.
Watch the other bands. What are they doing that you like and dislike. What gets reactions from the crowd?
Network, network, network. Introduce yourself to the other bands. See if they have any gigs coming up you can piggy back on, or contacts for places you want to play. Reciprocate; don’t just be a taker.
The band should meet and talk about all these things and then make a plan.
As I was thinking about all this unsolicited advice, I considered how I feel about my writing career now that’s changed since my first go.
I think I’ve finally Gotten Serious.
Which is why, even though I didn’t want to write my blog today, I did anyway. And considering I wasn’t 100% on what I’d write about–even with my prescribed rotation of topics–I think it turned out pretty decent.
Which made me think about a quote from H. Jackson Brown Jr.: “One must come to the altar of inspiration with more than just a passing wish.”
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I’m coining the term, “disciplinspiration:” noun, finding inspiration or motivation to perform a task while in the act of performing the task.
