Wednesday, May 19, 2010

NOT TONIGHT, DEAR...I'M ON DEADLINE

By Maria Ferrer



This is the tag line of the new Newseum, a private museum in Washington D.C., devoted to the "news." Their tagline is appropriate for writers everywhere.

The operative word in that tag being not. “No.”  I just need to learn to say it more often.

Life keeps interrupting my writing schedule. If it's not one thing, it's another - my family, the job, my travel schedule, the dogs, my friends, the chapter, and my family (they are twice as bad!).

I just finished reading Kathy Cano-Murillo’s WAKING UP IN THE LAND OF GLITTER. It’s a fun, fast read with great characters, which inspires one to get crafty. And Kathy is inspiring herself. She is busy working on her second novel and running her "Crafty Chica" empire. She has published 7 craft books, done numerous show-and-tell videos, and has a full line of craft items. Plus, there's a website, a Facebook fan page and a craft cruise. Not to mention her husband of 12 years and two kids. You can check her out at http://www.craftychica.com/.

When ask how she finds time to be with her family and write and be all she can be as the "Crafty Chica," Kathy replied: "If it's important to me, I make time to do it."

That's an even better tag line for a writer than the Newseum one, and one that I need to take more to heart.

But forget the tags and their appropriateness. The $64 million question is: Is writing important to me?

Yes.

Then WHY am I not doing more of it? WHY am I letting people, things, life interrupt?! WHY am I not published already?!!!  Do I want to be a "real" writer or not? ("real” writer = "published" writer)

Yes. Yes.

Since my answer is Yes, then I have to learn to say No more often...to outside interruptions, to too many outings with family and friends, to any extra projects.

So family and friends, I hereby give you notice. I am scheduling my writing first. So unless it's an important birthday or a special occasion, don't expect me. Trips to the mall will be restricted to 2 hours. Doctors' visits will be consolidated to happen all on the same day. (That's going to take a miracle but I'll try.) Movies and concerts will only be attended if writing pages have been accumulated.

I know. I know. These are great resolutions, all well and good on paper, but it's the follow through that counts.

So please feel free to email me directly and ask about my progress and word count. And if you have any tips on time management or inspirational tag lines you'd like to share, I welcome those too. 

Just not tonight, I'm working on my novel.♥




Maria Ferrer is busy writing.  Please leave a comment and she will respond soon.

8 comments:

  1. For me, it was the really hard decision to give up my piano and voice lessons. I've sung in choirs for years, and although my piano is pathetic, it has always been a part of my life. But if I'm going to write seriously and professionally--as a paying job--the real deal--I have to put it first. So I do. I do let myself play my harp a very little bit--something medieval-- before I sit down to the desk after supper. Elizabeth Palladino

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  2. Maria,

    Great post. We all lead busy lives but a word, a page, a chapter, a book, aren't going to magically appear out of no where. I like what Suzanne Brockmann said at the May brunch, that we all have the child in us and after accomplishing what we set out to do, which varies ( a word, a page, a chapter, etc.)we should reward ourselves ( a cookie, glass of wine, a run or bike ride, etc.) I know I feel rewarded just by writing, some days more, some days less.

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  3. You go girl!!! I can feel the energy in this post. Butt in chair, I say. How's this for a mantra, write, write = right!

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  4. Thank you for the encouragement, Ladies. I just need to get into a routine. Do check up on me next week. :D

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  5. Great post Maria. I love the Newseum, and that's a great line. Our lives are filled with some many distractions to our writing, and its hard to say no to people. BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard)is the first step. Check out the blog procrastinating writers for inspiration - but don't stay too long :)

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  6. Way to go, Maria. It's always hard to find the time to do it, but you're right that if it's important to you, you'll set aside the time. Keep us posted on your progress!

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  7. Wonderful post Maria! Best of luck with the writing! Glad you'll be keeping us posted.

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  8. Good luck getting all the doctors visits on one day!

    I'm just as bad, work takes up a great deal of time and oftentimes leaves me mentally drained. I try to schedule at least an hour a day to writing and more on the weekend if possible. I carry a super small notebook with me on the 3 buses I commute on, and even while doing the laundry I have my little Netbook with me working on excerpts that I store on a flash drive to transfer onto whichever machine I have the entire novel stored on. When I don't feel very creative, I look over my characters' breakdowns to see if there's anything I can add to their traits. Then there are research days where I stare at photos and read newspaper articles. I consider that "working" on writing even if I'm not upping the word count.

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