There comes a point in time when you realise that those posts in the draft folder are never going to get finished.
When you realise that mindset is everything and if your mind isn’t set right then whatever it is you think you want to happen is not going to happen.
When you realise that you’re more concerned about what you do with your time than about how much you have left.
When you realise feeling grateful and privileged and comfortable just doesn’t cut it on the self respect front.
There are many things I would like see happen in my life. I’d like to write a successfully published novel. I’d like to be a better trainer for my dogs. I’d like to surround myself with colleagues who I feel confidence in, I’d like to be physically fitter, healthier and comfortable. I’d like to worry less about the things I cannot resolve in a matter of moments. I’d like to read more, listen to music more and be with my dogs more. But do I have the mindset for all that? Wanting is not as powerful as it is made out to be. Goal setting is key comes the cry. One step at a time chants the old adage. Take each day as it comes is another, largely futile, sage piece of advice. Every failure is just another way you’ve found that doesn’t work.
There comes a time when you realise that tired adages and worn out sayings are just there to make the depressed individual feel better and everyone else look contemplative.
They say (they being the many authors’ interviews I’ve read) that the key to being a writer is to write everyday. I’m starting today – November 1st – with A.
A is for anything that I feel like writing about. On a Markus Zusak kick right now (instant similar age group achievement envy when I realised we’re practically the same age and look at his writing success) and reading The Underdogs trilogy of books. His writing is very poetic in style. But it’s his characters that shine. The Wolfe brotherhood is a truly great sibling relationship. I must finish The Book Thief one day. I don’t like books that make me cry. This one did so I kinda delayed the further likely inevitable distress. A good writer makes his audience feel.
Kids are simultaneously so incredibly fascinating and incredibly frustrating all at once. The Joy of Teaching. I wonder if that book has been written yet.
Write what you know they all say. I find it problematic to bring it all together – the worlds I know. Television, dogs, school, teaching, agility. Faced with the seemingly impossible task of starting. I’ll start here. One entry a day till I get to Z.
Sprytelee Agility Training 
I know the feeling Simone, and you describe it well. Wanting is not enough, ‘doing’ is the only way to achieve something, and ‘making’ the time to do what you want or like to do, by ignoring those voices that makes you procrastinate – you know the ones – “Oh but shouldn’t I be doing that cleaning?” or ” Perhaps I should wait until after I’ve done….” They are persistent, annoying, and can eat at your time.
One of the ‘blocks’ to writing a novel, despite how many author’s interviews and writing books you read is where to start? Elizabeth George works by doing profiles, quite detailed ones, of her characters, so she knows them well before she starts a novel. she knows their likes, dislikes, oddities, and the buttons which once pressed make them react in certain ways. She doesn’t always know the plot, but the books are very character driven. Other authors write many sketches, short pieces and scenes, then place them in order and somehow bring the whole lot together. People scoff at the Mills and Boon authors thinking that their writing of romance fiction is simple and almost a ‘Write by numbers’ template style. But it’s not that easy. A friend who writes up health research and has written many published articles about travel, and wrote a guide book for walking around Cardiff which is still published today and given to dignitaries who are in Cardiff for the first time, won a free set of lessons on Romantic Fiction, with some of Australia’s best authors in the field. She didn’t complete them as she realised she simply didn’t have remotely ‘what it takes’ to be an author in that genre. Her non-fiction articles were picked up and published with scarcely any editing. I acted many times as her PA (personal announcer in this case, as she has a bad stutter) but once I’d broken the ice, she didn’t need me to sell her writing, it spoke for her!
So if starting for you is A is for Anything, and we’re heading towards Z, I’m looking forward to B or will it B? Make it B soon…
Wow Linda – thanks for taking the time to write this, I do like hearing about what all the different approaches are. Yes enough listening to the ‘procrastinating’ voices. I need to just START. 😀