How To Make Writing Resolutions You Keep



Probably the most consistent problem I'm asked to help with is how to sustain the momentum required to finish writing projects.


Writing a book is apparently the secret wish of 90% of the population - as though writing a book somehow validates us as humans - and perhaps makes us a little immortal. 

 But only around 5% of people will ever rise to the challenge - and even they will falter more times than not. Of these would-be writers, less than one percent will ever finish their books - and just to be depressing now, only a handful of that one percent will ever be published, or publish themselves.


Faced with this punishing reality, how do you find the strength to carry on writing?

Let me answer by telling you a story.


Once, a very long time ago, I asked a practising motivational guru how I could become rich. I say it was a long time ago because in those days I was very cynical and I asked the question as more of a challenge than a query. The guru gave me a quick answer:


"Want to be rich."

I gave a dismissive grunt at this and asked, "Yeah, so what if that doesn't work?"

She smiled when she said, "Then you didn't want it enough."


At the time I took this to be a cop out. I congratulated myself, smugly, that I had exposed her phoniness.


Now, of course, I know better.


Because this is precisely how life works. In order to make anything happen, to get things done, achieve results, you have to want them enough.


But, but, but...


Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Knowing this isn't getting you any closer to the 'how'.


How do you get yourself to want something that much? I mean writing success is one thing - but all that work! Isn't there an easier way?


Well, yeah there is actually - and all it requires is a little shift in your perspective - and a whole lotta dreamin'...


Now, I could list a bunch of 'things to do' to help you create a little writing success but - that can wait for another day. 

 I want to tell you about the single most important aspect of success.


Today's the Day

Success is not a place or a time or a circumstance.


It's a state of mind.


And it's happening right now - all you have to do is to reach out and grasp it.


Take a few moments - actually the rest of the day - and imagine that you are rich, fulfilled and able to do anything you want, whenever you like.


Pretty cool, huh?


Now ask yourself: How would you feel? What would you do?


This is the shift in perspective I was talking about. You're never going to help your subconscious deal with writing success unless it believes it's already happening. 

 Because it's only when success is actually happening to you that you will begin to make the right decisions for your writing career and enable yourself to perpetuate the writing life you want.


Writing for a living requires commitment. Some things will work out, some things will not. That's the reality. You can't wait for the good times and then expect everything to be fine from then on. It doesn't work like that.


Achieve Your Writing Goals This Year

You need to decide, right now, that you are a writer - and will continue to be a writer from this moment on. And while you're about it, tell yourself you're already a successful writer - dwell on it, dream on it, and make it real.


Because it's believing that you are already a good and talented writer that will get you to finish writing projects.


I know this is true because, no matter the actual talent of the writer, it's the ones who believe in themselves and dream about the writer's life that make it. 
Every time.


I also know because a long time before I had houses and cars and money, 
I behaved in this way. Though I may have been naive and perhaps not that good to begin with, I never stopped believing I was meant to be a successful writer.

 And believing made it so.


Believing made me write more, made me read more, made me study writing, made me take courses and keep on learning as much as I could.

I still do it today because writing is a lifelong education. You don't just wake up one day and say, "Ah, now I get it, now I know enough."


Writing is a way of life and it's when you immerse yourself in it totally that you gain the necessary resolve to finish things - and then get them out there and read!


To Your Success.


 Rob Parnell
https://rob-parnell-writing-academy.thinkific.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Create Writing Success

Image
Here's a cute lie that most people believe: Writing is more than a skill, a pastime or a way of making a living. It is a vocation - like being a nurse or missionary. In order to commit yourself, and impress those that would read your work, you have to want to do it for nothing. Indeed this is how many of us become writers - it's something we feel compelled to do, whether asked to, required to or not! Certainly I've noticed that when you first start dealing with publishers, your enthusiasm, commitment and talent are of primary concern. Any talk of money too early in the process will see you ostracized very quickly. You're supposed to want to write for yourself - for art's sake - first. I guess it's about trust. The people that would help us get our work seen - in other words, published - need to be sure that our motives are sincere. That we write for some purpose other than just to make money. Tosh! I have discussed this aspect of the writer'
Read more

Cash Management for Writers

Image
(Irrelevant picture but at least the copyright is mine!)  I'd be lying if I told you that being a full-time writer is all wine and roses and endless days of blissful creativity - especially at the start. It's rarely that for most. If you look at the lives of the great writers throughout history, they invariably grew familiar with the pain of rejection, the fear of failure, and often the gnawing ache of poverty. These days poverty is a relative term. If you have a computer and an Internet connection, you're by no means poor, no matter how you may feel. Recently I spent some time in Luxor, Egypt. There I met many people who thought regularly going without food for a few days was normal; people who thought you were unimaginably rich if you could afford to catch a plane; people who dreamed of one day owning a mobile phone. These people were by no means peasants, they were town dwellers with jobs and apartments who, despite living without electricity, managed to b
Read more

The Times They Are A'Changin...

Image
It seems the longer time goes on, the more traditional publishers are shutting their doors to new authors.  Writers I speak to are getting their manuscripts back sooner and more frequently with those customary rejections these days, even if they've had publishing deals in the past. Anyhoo, where I live, South Australia has more than its fair share of successful writers - Sean Williams, who writes Star Wars novels, for one.  DM Cornish, whose Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy has a Hollywood option.  My wife, Robyn Opie, is the author of 85 internationally published books.  Janeen Brian is the proud author of 75 picture books, the list goes on. Wannabe professional writers should find this encouraging. Of course a lot more writers find success online these days, being independent and carving a niche as an authorpreneur. My subscribers often complain about how long it takes to gain some traction as an independent author. But don't forget it's never been easy
Read more