Comments on: Commit to Finish. Commit to Begin Again.

By: Words on a page » Blog Archive » A few links for the end of the week - A blog about writing, in its various forms

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:32:31 +0000

[...] Commit to finishing, commit to beginning again [...]

By: uppington

uppington — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:53:38 +0000

You nailed it. I spent too many years going out for that ice cream cone when things got tough. No more. I’m committed, baby, and there is no turning back now.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:21:28 +0000

“I’ve gone spending too much time dreaming about where I want my writing to take me to working on taking my writing where where it ought to go.”

This is so completely me. I’m so glad I found your blog.

By: Tracie W.

Tracie W. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:48:06 +0000

Good stuff! Thanks for the heads up about Brain Harvest. I’m gonna go for it.

By: Friday Link Love 8/28 | Brad’s Reader

Friday Link Love 8/28 | Brad’s Reader — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:34:17 +0000

[...] Commit to finish. Commit to begin again. [...]

By: Lindsay Price

Lindsay Price — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:20:15 +0000

Pamela and Joseph, I love what you say about commitment. It is about never giving up and committing to all your writing, not just the pretty stuff.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:27:21 +0000

It all boils down to never giving up. I have been writing off and on for 25 years. And every time I decided I was not cut out for it I would quit, only to eventualy realize that it was something I had to do no matter what. Every year that goes by I take one step closer. Now, looking back I can see how I have evolved into the writer I am now. Much better than I could have dreamed of 25 years ago.

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:56:09 +0000

This is a very wise post. My only suggestion would be to not restrict the full extent of its wisdom, which is maybe most poignant for creative pursuits like writing, but really, it works for everything. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent, say, thinking about some new programming project, trying to figure out if I should do it in Clojure in order to tap into the full JVM toolchain, or try Scala, or maybe Ruby on Rails, but then how am I going to deploy it for less than a billion dollars, so maybe I should use Google App Engine -

of course, the sad reality is that these little mental journeys never culminate in any code being written. I know I’m bad at this, but I don’t think it’s just me – a lot of people get caught up in planning for the externalities and wallowing in metacognition to the point that they never actually _do_ anything. Is it cliche by now to say that you can do something in less time than you can figure out whether or not you should do something? Well, cliches are so tired because they’re so true we get sick of them, not because they’re not true enough.

Anyway. This post was the right thing at the right time for me. Thanks.

By: Stacy S. Jensen

Stacy S. Jensen — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:10:32 +0000

I can relate too well to this, especially today. So, I’m leaving here to return to my work. Thanks!

By: Pamela Weir

Pamela Weir — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:09:19 +0000

Writing is hard work. For a long time, I was one of those people who thought that if I decided to write a short story or a novel, I could just sit down and do it one day. One draft, one read through and off it goes. Once writing became my profession, my outlook changed significantly.

Now I see rewriting as a way to take the story in new directions, free it from the constraints of my first draft and open it up to more outcomes and possibilities. I have to let go of the idea of perfection.

Commitment is tough. It means you’re committed to the crap and the good writing, and you don’t really know the outcome until you’re finished. No one likes to admit that they spent a year writing the manuscript they just put through the shredder.

I don’t think there is a “writer’s life.” I think there’s a writer’s attitude and love of the craft. If you love it, practice it everyday, and can’t imagine doing anything else with as mush passion or dedication, then that’s the writer’s life.