Archives for November 2017

How long is it going to take for you to say it?  What is the threshold?

Do I have to tell you?  Does someone in your family have to tell you?  Do you have to have your face on a bookshelf at Barnes & Noble?

How much longer are you going to wait to say it?

It happened to me the other night.  I was working in the evening and a business associate and I were talking about our work lives apart from the work we were doing there.

She said, “It’s cool that apart from being a pastor you do things like this on the side?  Do you do anything else?”

I paused for a millisecond.  “I do,” I replied.

“What else?”

“I’m a writer.”

“Really?  That’s cool!”  Her response was anticlimactic because I suppose I wanted her to talk me out of it.  So, I’m going to tell you three reasons why you refuse to say you’re a writer.

1) You haven’t written a book yet.  At first glance, this seems valid.  However, upon deeper examination you will realize it’s crap.

If you’ve written for pleasure, or for publication, or for reflection and it moves you.  You’re a writer.

2) Not a lot of people know of you.  That’s nonsense.  Even published NYT bestselling authors don’t have the recognition that you might think.  Of course you have Stephen King and George R.R. Martin, but let’s face it, how many authors can you name with fervor.

3) You haven’t made any money from your work.  If that’s the barometer for creativity than it’s a failed measuring stick.  Just because you aren’t making money doesn’t mean you aren’t making.  And that’s what a writer does s/he creates.

So, if you need someone to tell you, let me be that person.

You’re a writer and so am I.  Writers write, so let’s do that!  Keep on getting that word count.  If it’s only 100 words, it’s 100 more than you’d have.

Click below for a Special Day 5 Motivation!

 

http://samlinton.me/videos/nanowrimo-2017-day-5-2/

An important step to a killer NaNoWriMo day happens the day before.

Yes, I said it.  I don’t know what your writing situation is like, but I know what mine is.  I have a home office, and an office where I work.  At any given moment these spaces are filled with clutter (artists have to be messy, I read that on the internet, so it’s true).

I knew that the only DEFINITE time I could write a novel would have to be early in the morning.  I also knew that if my office wasn’t ready for me to sit my butt in the chair and write immediately, I would most likely sleep through the 5:30 am alarm.  Because waking up to work, to work to work is a lot different than just waking up to work, if you understand that.  I don’t want to accomplish tasks before I get to the main task.

So I have coffee brewing 5 minutes before my alarm goes off, I have a cup of ice water in a thermal tumbler near my computer, and I have my computer on sleep instead of off.  I spend time in prayer and reading and then I jump in like an Olympic swimmer.

I think sometimes we create artificial obstacles to sabotage ourselves.  I knew that if I was going to do this, I would need to remove all obstacles.

Set up your place.  I realize you may not have a place.  Set up your computer to make it expressly easy to jump on and start writing.  Set up whatever device you’re using to write and make it easy on yourself.  Let the only struggle you have be the struggle with words, not to get to them.

What are you doing that’s working?  Keep on writing and take down those hurdles!

I have a difficult time with vision.  Not physical vision, but long-range goal vision.  Well, I am sort of blind in my left eye which really jacks my depth perception.  My wife says that it’s an excuse, but whatever.

But I have a problem with future vision.  Let’s define vision as a picture of a future state that does not yet exist.  That’s a good definition for what we are doing here.

For instance, you might look at a piece of property and see a beautiful garden with all manner of trees and bushes.  Boom!  you have a vision.

You might see a dilapidated car that’s been scrapped, but you see potential and you want to restore it because you know what it would be like if ran!  Boom vision!

I heard of a revolutionary idea though to help you better craft your future self.  Because let’s face it, we all wanna be different than where we are now, but it’s what we do in these moments that affects our vision.

This idea is that we ought to write a letter from our future selves.   But write a letter to yourself for how you feel at the end of NaNoWriMo.  Not about being published, not about having the perfect work, but about taking a step you wouldn’t normally take.

Keep writing!  A sample of my future NaNoWriMo letter is below.

November 30, 2017

 

 

Dear Sam,

Thank you for being just as handsome at the end of November as you were at the beginning.

In all seriousness.  You’ve wanted to do this all your life.  And right now, you did better than you ever expected.

All the ingredients that you need for your writing were within you the entire time.  You thought that there are better writers out there, and you’re right.  But you stopped measuring yourself to them, and started to tell your story.

Good job!  You’re a writer.

Present Sam (still good looking)

My mom, who was so passionate about buying that clunky typewriter handwrite a note to me about 14 months before she died.  In her note, she said many things that are beyond the scope of this article, but the one thing germane to this discussion is on writing.

She said, “never stop writing, even if it’s just for you.”

Wow, how profound and simple at the same time.  I suppose when I wrote before it was always in anticipation of someone reading it.  It was always for income.  It was always for something else.

However I missed the point.  This was a passion that I believe God instilled in me long before I even understood it.  And I let it collect dust, like that space gray Smith Corona.  So just recently, I started writing for me.  And it. Is. Glorious.

I don’t care who thinks what, because a part of me that was comatose for the past decade has awakened.  And this part of me is hungry.  I’m talking bring your SUV to load up for fourth meal at Taco Bell hungry.

Here is the beautiful part: I don’t know where it’s going.  But I do know, today, I found the model (or close to it) of that Smith Corona Typewriter on eBay – and I bought it for $33.33 (including shipping).  Will I use it to maintain my writing, I doubt it.  Pretty sure that dinosaur technology makes a little bit more noise in Starbucks  this little MacBook Air that I’m writing on does.  Noise pollution wasn’t a think in the 90s like it is now.  However, I’m not going to lie, I may just try it!

Back to you – what can you do to bring that dream back?  Now, don’t go crazy, resign from work, and take up knitting full-time, but maybe just buy some needles on eBay.

Don’t sell you home to buy that business and move your children into the warehouse, but call your financial advisor.

Don’t dump your job at the bank to go on tour with the band that hasn’t formed yet, but start strumming again.

Do it for the fun of it – for the passion in it, not the outcome of it.

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) — 9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Did you ever think that maybe that itching passion that you have that you have become so good at pushing aside may be a divine directive that only you can accomplish?  Did you ever think that maybe your weird and quirky hobbies fit into a greater plan of a sovereign and unique Creator?  Did you ever think that he’s not asking you to figure out how where things are going to turn out if you travel this road, but he just wants you to position yourself and walk towards his path?

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.  And all this can be yours, for $33.33 (including shipping).  Or maybe less.  But you get the gist.

 

It’s NaNoWriMo Day 2 – Write for the writing – for you.