Treat Your Writing as a Career

Even if you have a full-time job.

You might not have a lot of time to write, especially if you have a job, be it full time or part time. Or if you're an at-home Mom. Or for any number of reasons, your writing time may be limited.

But even if you can write only an hour a day, or even only an hour a week, treat the time as you would the time you put in at any other job. Don't skip it on a whim. Don't tell yourself you'll put in twice as much time next week to make up for not writing this week.

Sure, there will be sick days and even vacation days. But only when you are *really* sick should you skip your writing time. And schedule vacation days from writing as you would from any other job.

Mark your writing time on the calendar or smartphone or however you keep track of anything important. Because your writing time is important--or at least it should be, if you really want writing to be your career.

The Romance Reviews Anniversary Party!

Non-deep Thoughts

- I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?...

- Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

- All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

- If the world were a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.

- What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?

- They told me I was gullible ... And I believed them.

- Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.

- Two can live as cheaply as one, for half as long.

- Is there another word for synonym?

- Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?

- The speed of time is one second per second.

- Is it possible to be totally partial?

- What's another word for thesaurus?

- Is Marx's tomb a communist plot?

- If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?

- Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.

-It's not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.

- Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?

- Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.

- What if there were no hypothetical questions?

- One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.

- When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

- A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

- What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?

- My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies.

- I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

- The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.

- How can there be self-help "groups"?

- I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.

Writing the Perfect Book

It's not going to be perfect. So what do you do?

You just keep writing.

Just grind it out. The next day re-read what you wrote. It may sound better than you thought it would. If not, you'll probably have some idea on how to make it better. But don't worry about it being perfect. For one thing, you can rewrite and polish later. For another, nothing is perfect, so don't expect to write the perfect book.

What you can do is write the best book that you can write. It will be your idea. Your voice. Your story.

That wonderful book that you had in your mind before you ever sat down and actually started writing is never going to be perfect.

But don't give up. Just keep writing.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

Why not both? I've heard and read a lot of discussion about people not saying Merry Christmas any more. Well, I still hear Merry Christmas, quite often, in fact. But I do also hear Happy Holidays too.

I celebrate Christmas. So I say Merry Christmas--to those I know who also celebrate Christmas. Otherwise, I say Happy Holidays. I feel that's inclusive. There are several holidays in December, and of course there is New's Day in January. So Happy Holidays can cover a lot of ground, especially if you are saying it to someone early in the month who you probably won't see again for another month or so.

Store clerks are probably instructed to say Happy Holidays, because they don't usually know what holidays their customers might celebrate. And, of course, the customers might not know what, if any, holidays the store workers celebrate. So again, Happy Holidays covers it all.

Since already I'm seeing ads for Christmas on TV and in newspapers and magazines, and Christmas music will be taking over some of the radio stations either just before or just after Thanksgiving, depending on the station, I think there's plenty of Christmas in the air.

And of course decorations will be showing up in stores, churches, homes and in many businesses. The businesses may have more generic decorations, such as snow scenes, since, again, not everyone working at or coming into the business will necessarily be celebrating Christmas. But there will be Santas and Christmas villages and angels and Nativity scenes in many places.

So, it's early, but let me wish you Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays--whichever works for you!

Freud had it wrong.

His question should have been "What do CATS want?"

Really, has anyone every figured out the inner workings of a cat's mind? Anyone who has a cat knows that cats are intelligent. Look at how they get us to do their bidding!

It's their methods, though, that often prompt us to ask what the cat really wants. If a cat has gotten his or her way once by doing a series of activities before the cat's person finally figures out that the cat, say, wants to go out, then ever after the cat will go through the same series. Nevermind that it might start with a meow by the food dish, followed by ignoring the food, walking in a circle, meowing a again, and then, maybe, heading for the door to the outside. If it worked once, the cat figures that's how it's done!

And how many of us have give food to our apparantly starving cats, only to have them turn up their noses at it? It took me years before I finally figured out that I should not stand there waiting to see if the cat was going to eat. I now walk away into another room, and soon the cat starts chowing down. She must want her privacy when she eats. At least, that's how I read the situation. Who really knows?

Most of the time when my cat curls up on my lap it is because she wants to snuggle, be petted and sleep (or that's the way it appears). But sometimes I think it's just to keep tabs on me and be prepared, when I get up, to indicate another want or need, be it food or to go outside (the primary cat issues, at least in my home).

So, let others worry about what women want. Those of us with cats will better spend our time trying to figure out what cats want!

In the Beginning

An author has to grab the reader's attention.

A writer has only a few pages to hook a reader. It doesn't matter if the rest of book is fascinating, page-turning reading if a reader can't get past the first two or three pages. If those beginning pages are weak, the readers will probably abandon the book. (Editors too, if your book is in the submission phase.) With TV, internet, cell phones, etc., there is too much competition for a young reader's time.

The writer has to reveal something to the reader. It could be a problem, a conflict or an attitude. It could be the emotional state of the main character.

Another approach is to present a question. Why does Nicole hate her father? What did Jason see his best friend do? What was that student doing hiding in the custodian's closet?

No matter what approach a writer takes, the result needs to be a beginning that hooks the reader.