Work Ethic

There's something to be said for a work ethic when it comes to writing.  And that something is this, "You need one."

I'm tempted to season this post with tons of quotes from famous authors.  It's late though, and I'm about 150 words shy of my daily word count quota.

(Hmm.  What does it say that I'm blogging about work ethic at midnight, when I haven't finished my work yet?  Nothing I hope.  After all, I'm on a break.)

Sometimes I'm convinced that I'm breaking through the walls of creativity and good storytelling, that I'm arriving.  Other times I'm certain that I'm a hack with no future in writing beyond these self delusions.  Both of these attitudes overcome me several times daily.

The attitude I most need to confront is the first.  And I've found the cure for it is to write.  It's been a lousy weekend for writing.  No excuses here, I simply haven't written as much as I needed to.  When that happens, the negative feelings prevail.

So tonight I finally had a chance to get to work.  The temptation to watch something on Netflix, or read, or even sleep nearly won.  But I'd barely written anything today, and most of that was- never mind what most of it was actually.

So I wrote.  It felt good.  It felt right.  I became convinced that I had broken through the walls.. blah.. blah.. blah.

You get better by writing.  Are my short stories and novels getting better?  I hope so.  I think so.  But they never will if I don't have the work ethic.

So keep writing.