"It took me years to write, will you take a look?"

(title quote: The Beatles, Paperback Writer)

"Some things you have to do every day. Eating seven apples on Saturday night instead of one a day just isn't going to get the job done." - Jim Rohn

At some point in our lives, it's bound to happen. One day we look into the mirror and realize that our reflection fills more of it than it used to. Or, if we're lucky, we find some way to get active, or stay active, with a routine of sensible eating and sensible physical activity before our reflections loom large before us.

If you've ever successfully established an exercise routine, there are several things that you know to be true, several keys to success. One of the first realities that hits us is the difficulty of motivating ourselves to exercise regularly, because we realize that the exercise is only beneficial if we do it on a regular basis. The reality is that it can be incredibly difficult to drag yourself to the gym, track, swimming pool, or wherever it is that you put in your time, every day. Sometimes we must do it when there is frost or snow on the ground. Sometimes we must do it when the temperature must be higher than our IQ. Sometimes we must do it after we worked far too many hours or slept far too few, or some obscene combination of the two. Worst of all, sometimes we have to do it when we just don't feel like it.

“In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help train us in perseverance.” - Mao Tse-Tung

If we're going to make this work, we must find ways to convince ourselves that the benefit of doing it somehow outweighs the inconvenience, the pain, and the persistent voice in our head that tells us it's all for nought. This is especially true when we hit a plateau and can't use the mirror for our motivation. Even the most dedicated gym rats have had moments when they were sure their carefully constructed program was doomed to failure. I know you've been there. You know why it derailed, or almost derailed. Maybe it was the holidays, or maybe you just weren't inspired, or maybe it was the voice... yes, that one. You know what I'm talking about.

To be successful, any program of exercise must be engaged in on a regular basis, no matter how poorly we feel, or how unmotivated or uninspired we are.

Fact: There are more than 600 muscles in the human body.

Fact: There are no muscles in the brain.

Anyone who has ever aspired to be a writer has faced the same challenges as anyone who as ever aspired to be physically fit. Whether your outlet is circuit training, poetry, marathon running, journalism, boxing, prose fiction, or martial arts, you have to approach the training with the same mindset.

What I'm saying here is...

Welcome to my gym.

That's right. This is where I've been whipping myself into shape, day-in and day-out. I've spent countless grueling hours here, sweating out the mental cobwebs and working those writing "muscles" into shape.

“Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing.” – Heather Armstrong

If you've been reading here for very long, you know that I write something almost every day. Almost. I have missed a few days, but not many. Oh, believe me, every single day I've missed has weighed heavily on my conscience. If I do miss a day, I try to double up the next day to make up for it, but I still feel bad because I've missed getting the work in. I missed one or two when I was cleaning out my office. I wrote even in late June when I was terribly sick, and possibly depressed, and felt the urge to sleep for 20 out of almost every twenty four hours because whatever I had was draining me beyond the point of exhaustion. It was all I could do to sit before this screen and plunk the keys, hoping the words came out in the right order. I wrote the night I was in the car accident. I wrote the day I resigned from my job. I wrote even when my car broke down. I just managed to write the night the power went out because of the severe thunderstorms. You know you've done it too. Those of you who sometimes feel like you live in a gym, you know what I mean. Some of your best workouts seem to come on the days when life is bombarding you from all sides. The hardest part is dragging yourself out of your air conditioned house, letting go of all the other things you could be doing, and getting started.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
- Jack London

The start is the hardest part. Grab your club.

When I was in high school, I discovered the wonderfully frivolous Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Xanth is a fantasy world set in an alternate version of the state of Florida. It is filled with wild and fantastic beasts and every living person in Xanth, as well as some of the dead ones, has a magical talent. The thing that appealed to me the most was the sense of humor... or what some people would call nonsense of humor. The world of Xanth is filled with puns. There are cottages made of cheese and cherries that explode like bombs. Shoes grow on shoe trees and the Isle of View is a popular honeymoon destination (go on, say it out loud).

One of my favorite scenes from the series is when the Author of creation is having trouble writing the future of Xanth. Even seeing the pages he is trying to write on are difficult because there is a dead lion looming over him, blocking his light, and sitting heavily on the paper in front of him is a huge block. It is, of course, a writer's block.

“Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.” – Leonard Bernstein

When I had to present a group project for a college class on reading and writing in the school setting, my partner and I decided to use this particular scene to introduce a lesson on overcoming obstacles in writing. Now, they just happened to be doing some construction work on campus involving large, heavy bricks that semester. You guessed it. My partner secured one such brick, used a large, dark permanent marker to inscribe it with the words, "WRITER'S BLOCK" and presented it to me before we were to present the lesson. Fifteen years later, I still have the block. In the days since I began this blog, I have also, on occasion, had the less tangible variety.

There is something to be said for starting. Cal Ripken did it every day for 2,632 consecutive games. I've heard many writers/bloggers say that you have to have a plan before you start to write. I must confess something to you. I often sit down at the keyboard without the foggiest notion of what I am going to write about. Sometimes it take a long time for the writing to flow. It's like pricking your arm with a needle. Sometimes you hit a dry one, but if you poke around enough, you'll eventually hit a gusher.

“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.” – W. Somerset Maugham

On some of those desperate days, when I'm sure that no ideas will come, all the veins will be dry, I've hit some of the biggest gushers. When you find a story that wants to be told, it will tell itself. If you can't find one, then you haven't looked hard enough, long enough, or in the right places.

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition” – Graham Greene

Or... you are capping it off before it has a chance to flow. If we truly want to write, why would we stop the flow? There are many possible answers. Writing is personal. Showing your writing to someone is like inviting strangers in to show them your underwear drawer. Sometimes we just aren't comfortable with making ourselves that vulnerable.

“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.”
– Anne Rice

What we call a lack of inspiration is really an abundance of inhibition. Self-consciousness is the writer's worst enemy. The fear that the stories inside of us aren't good enough to tell, or that nobody wants to read what we have to write are akin to thinking those exercises aren't really gonna help us get in shape. The story is there. It's there for a reason. It will find it's audience.

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” - Sylvia Plath

Have you ever walked over the same piece of concrete or asphalt almost every day for a long period of time? Whether it's on a jogging path or a sidewalk doesn't matter. One day, you may notice a bulge and eventually a crack in that formerly solid piece of real estate. Then, you may walk your normal route one day, surprised to see a small green stalk valiantly pushing its way through that hard surface. It has found the sun. The words you have inside will find their audience just like that little plant found the sun... through persistence, determination, and instinct. Plants grow toward the sun because that is their nature. Words find receptive minds for the same reason. Your doubts about the value of your words will kill them just as surely as a groundskeeper with an herbicide sprayer will take out that brave little plant. If you nurture them in the fertile soil of your mind, they will grow.

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” – E.L. Doctorow

If you've ever started a training program at the local gym, chances are you've had someone to give you a tour of the place, show you the machines, explain how they work, guide you through a sample workout, and offer you some additional training sessions. If you weren't at least somewhat familiar with the equipment it would be likely that you'd hurt either yourself, the equipment, or possibly both.

The same is true for writing. We need someone to give us the tour, show us how the equipment works, and help us get started with some sample writing, and hopefully offer us additional training. Do we need to hire a writing coach? Not necessarily. These personal writing trainers are abundant and can be found at many retail outlets, your local public library, and even your living room, office, or wherever it is that you keep your computer. They are called books, poems, magazines, blogs, newspapers. They go by many names and come in many shapes and sizes. They each offer us training in a slightly different aspect of the writing craft. Just as an aspiring marathon runner would be well advised to participate in endurance training, an aspiring novelist must read novels. Trying to be a writer without enjoying the pleasure of reading on a regular basis would be like trying to be a pilot without ever flying an airplane. A writer MUST make time for reading.

“If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.” – Stephen King

Most importantly, when the critics discover your writing, you must let them be entitled to their own interpretations of it without letting those interpretations derail your program. Any dedicated "fitness junkie" has friends who have asked, "Why do you spend so much time at the gym?" Possibly, those same friends have encouraged you to "try desert" or "have just one more beer." "What's it gonna hurt? I don't see how all that exercise is gonna help you anyway." There are people out there who will try to turn your beloved creation into a monster. Just remember that this monster they see hasn't changed from the beautiful thing you created. They haven't rewritten a single word. The only thing that they've tried to change is the way you view it.

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change it." – James Baldwin

I recently read a popular blog on writing that said that even if we write every day, that we definitely shouldn't post it to our blogs every day, because some of those posts will stick out as fluff or filler. I do not subscribe to this school of thought. I say that you should indeed write every day, and that you should post as often as you write. Sure, you may turn out a clunker here and there, but the challenge then becomes not to write fluff or filler, but instead to write material of the same quality every time you write. I firmly believe that it is only through that discipline and the subjection of our words to the scrutiny of an audience every single day that we can develop consistency. Writers are not like musicians who have to practice in solitude to eliminate the wrong notes and missed keys. We have the power to eliminate our "wrong notes" with a single keystroke, before the audience is ever exposed to the final product.

"Use what talents you possess–for the woods would be silent if no birds sang but the best." -Henry Jackson van Dyke

In reading a large number of blogs every day, I often see people lament that they cannot express themselves or use words as well as other bloggers they read regularly. I've read several blogs lately where the author has considered giving up because they fear that their talents are not up to the level of other writers they read on a daily basis.

“Writing is both mask and unveiling.” - E.B. White

Every writer I read has a unique voice. No two write with quite the same style. Every person's personality comes through in their writing, whether they like it or not. At the same time, we all project our writing through some form of facade. Our blog is our storefront and our words are the merchandise. Every store offers a slightly different shopping experience and every one carries a slightly different variety of merchandise.

Living in Myrtle Beach, I have always been astounded that it seems like a new restaurant opens here almost every week, and it is immediately crowded during the dinner hour, yet the other restaurants remain just as crowded as they were before. There are people with different tastes for every style of cuisine. Every writer has an audience. Don't try to compare your writing to someone else's. Find your own style, your own voice, and learn to love it. We nurture that which we love and we do everything we can to watch it grow. We never want the things we love to pass away. The same must be true of your writing.

“If you wish to be a writer; write!” – Epictetus

If you choose to write, then write. Let no one discourage you, especially not yourself. Find things that you feel strongly about, whether you love them or hate them, whether they inspire joy anger, nostalgia, or sorrow. Write about them. Every day. Let nothing stop you.

I wrote an email to a friend from my "previous life" last night, part of that unfinished business I mentioned in my last post. In it, I tried to catch her up on what I've been doing with my life since I left teaching. I told her in that email, "I've decided to become a writer. I've been secluding myself from all distractions and writing for a minimum of 2 hours EVERY day, no matter what. If I work for 10 hours, I still write for at least 2 either before or after work... I've decided that I'm GOING to be a writer (or actually already am one, since I already do it for an audience every day). I'm not letting anything or anyone hold me back from that. I'm sick of being a coward and living the life others expect of me. " This is part of creating my own reality.

“It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.” - Sinclair Lewis

Remember, if you are doing something, whether it's exercising, writing, or playing guitar, you do it, at least in part, because it's something you enjoy. If your parents, boss, significant other, children, friends, or some stranger with a computer doesn't think you should be writing, or doing whatever it is that you enjoy doing, that's their opinion, to which they are entitled. You don't have to let it define your reality, change your life, or keep you from doing what you love. Continue to do what you love, every day, for as long as you love doing it, no matter what obstacles appear in your path. If you stop loving it for a day, keep doing it for another month, or however long you can continue doing it with intent and commitment. As with any exercise, we all have our off days, or as parents well know, days when we wish we didn't recognize our own children. If the love doesn't return, then by all means, find something else to do.

Welcome to my gym. Let me show you around...

“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh