Acting Like a Writer



The way my head feels right now.  Photo by Freedigitalphoto



I totally forgot to do a blog post for today.  I remembered yesterday morning, when the power went out for two hours.  I remembered Sunday night when I was up until one o’clock, editing.  I just forgot yesterday, when I could enter a post.

Yes, it was the editing again.  I wanted to finish the third draft yesterday, and when the power went out, I fell behind.  Once the power came back on, all I thought about was getting the d%*n thing done.  Twelve o’clock rolled around, I finally finished editing (Yay!) and I realized I didn’t have a post to schedule. I also realized I needed to go to bed so I could get up at and go to work this morning.

All that backstory comes down to a desperate need to get something together.  I’m writing this at work.  Shhhh – don’t tell anyone.  Since editing has been the only thing on my mind for the last month and a half, I’ll talk a bit about it, and then let you go, if you’ve made it through my rambling beginning!

I’m not going to talk about the mechanics of editing, since so many of you have been there before and can run circles around me with your processes.  No, it’s the completion of my editing that I thought about yesterday.

I can not believe I have finished my second and third drafts in a month and a half.  For the last two years I have bemoaned the fact that I go to work, and have kids, and how the heck can I compete with people who write for a living.  I’ve complained that I am a slow writer, and it takes me forever to write even 500 words.  I’ve felt pleased when I write for half-an-hour without interruption.  I guess I’m pretty whiney, when it comes down to it.

And then I finished my second and third drafts in a month and a half.  I carved out two hours a day to write.  While I did the minimum on the rest of my goals and responsibilities, I disproved all my whininess.

I sat down, figured out what it took to get my stuff together, and then did it.  I acted like a writer.

Did I have support.  You bet – and I am so grateful to Kelley for double checking that I actually made sense in the manuscript, my husband for being wonderfully supportive, and my Mom for watching my kids an extra day on the weekends so I could focus on getting my manuscript finished.

Would I want to do this all the time?  No!  My house is a wreck.  My kids are celebrating that they’ll get their mom back tonight. (I still have some things to tweak, but I plan on doing it all after they go to bed.)  I’ve gained three pounds.  My husband is thrilled he can concentrate on his classwork again.  My social media time came to a standstill, and my comments and page views show it.  I’m excited I might get to go to bed at ten o’clock again.

But now I know.  I won’t be able to whine anymore.  I’m a writer. I just have to act like it.

Have you ever surprised yourself with your accomplishments?  What lessons have you learned that help you be a successful writer.