Great writing inspires others to write greatly. I've always had a dream to write, but having a family deterred me. I am blessed with a lovely wife of more than 11 years, and have four boys to keep me constantly busy. I love it, I truly do. But, back in my single college days, I was a writer, and I spent most of my free time working on honing the skills to write. My focus was primarily poetry. Once I was married and had children, I thought I had to put that aside until later when I had the time to write.
Wrong.
If writing is your passion, and you recognize you are a writer, don't bury that seed and hope it comes back some day off in the future. The time is NOW to write. I alluded to direct interactions with writers. That actually happened for me. I read a fantastic book, The Mockingbirds, by Daisy Whitney, and found her twitter account online. I wrote her a few tweets, and she wrote back. WOW. I know it's not a masculine thing to do, but I couldn't help the SQUEE factor.
I then wrote Daisy an email and shared with her my desire to write. She took the time to respond and has encouraged me several times as I took the plunge and wrote my first novel. Daisy is a very busy woman. She has an online business she runs in the day, a website and blog, and is a full time writer as well. During the time I wrote my first book, she finished the sequel to her first book, The Rivals, which is set to be published in February 2012 (I can't wait!!!), and wrote and is publishing a third book, When You Were Here, which is currently in the early publication process. Oh, and she is already working on ANOTHER new book. Daisy is a WRITING MACHINE! and definitely inspires me in my writing. One thing she shared with me when I referred to the difficulty of finding time to write was, "write during the interstitial times, such as when you take your son to karate." Thank you, Daisy. That was a world-changer and eye-opener for me.
I know I've rattled on here quite a bit, but my point is this: If you want to write, don't let anything stop you. Get out there and write. And, while you're at it, get reading! That's RULE #1 of writing. Read to fill up the "Writer's Creative Well," and out of that comes your own writing, written in your own voice.
To help you along the way, I'm sharing the top five blogs I go to for writing tips, encouragement, and for sharing the writerly journey. If you haven't done so, create a twitter account and follow writers to learn more about the process they and we are going through. Many writers share these things online, and you might stumble across a great book giveaway, or other opportunities to win autographed and other nifty prizes. What have you got to lose? Check out the list below and share your own great resources in the comments section.
Oh, and GET WRITING! Make a daily goal and shoot for that as a minimum each day. Try to write around the same time each day if you can. Set it up like a schedule. For myself, I write during nap time, after bedtime and when I take my son to karate, but you already knew that, didn't you?
TOP FIVE BLOGS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW NOW:
1. Daisy Whitney's Author's Blog: http://daisywhitney.com/blog/
2. K. M. Weiland's Word Play Author's Blog: http://www.wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/
3. Ava Jae's Writeability Writer's Blog: http://avajae.blogspot.com/
4. Tymothy Longoria's Aspire No More Writer's Blog: http://tymothylongoria.wordpress.com/
5. J.A. Bennett's A Book, A Girl, A Journey Blog: http://abookagirlajourney.blogspot.com/
Please share your faves in the comments below. Have a great weekend!
Oh my goodness, Thank you!! And this is such an inspiring post. I love hearing about what drives other writers. I have so many blogs that I love you can see a good portion of them on my blog roll, I only wish I could get to everyone everyday. Thank you again!
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