Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Carry your story with you. And I don't mean just around in your head.

Writers need to write. We crave it. While others are thinking about what they are going to watch on TV when they get home from work, we are thinking about what event will start our next chapter. The thought of crafting a story is always somewhere on our minds, and if you happen to catch a writer in his natural habitat, you will notice the quirky mannerisms. The rubbing of the fingertips together as we imagine typing away at a keyboard even as the boss drones on about the value of the company's parsnip investments (that may not apply to everyone,) or how writers always seem to drift off when speaking to people after a few seconds. It's not that we aren't interested, you probably just inspired a great bit of dialogue that is now running at full click around our brains. Writing isn't a job or hobby. For a lot of us, it's our lives.

And sometimes we hate it.

See, as I've covered before, the realization that we must actually produce a written work to be successful is an annoying little creature that likes to gnaw on the base of our skull while we are trying to go about our daily lives. We procrastinate to the point where often good ideas that we had at the initial point of our story have long been forgotten. We put off touching our story for a day, then a few days, and before we know it, it's been a month. And then we go back and read some of the story and it's very much like a stranger wrote it.

But it wasn't a stranger. It was you. And you neglected your story. And now it weeps alone in a dark corner and wonders why you ever bothered in the first place.

Feel guilty yet? Well, you don't have to. Not anymore. From now on, you are going to carry your story around with you wherever you go. On a flash drive.

I have mine. It's in the little pocket of my jeans that I think was once designed to be used for lighters. You know the one.

And I carry it with me always. Along with my keys, my wallet and my phone, it is always on my person. And because it is always there, I am constantly thinking about it. When I walk in the house or happen upon any other unsuspecting laptop, I plug in my flash drive and write a few pages. My progress on my novel is on warp speed because I don't leave my story alone anymore. I literally carry it with me like a child everywhere I go.

So put your book on a flash drive and make a habit of having it on you at all times. You will be surprised how much more you write when your best friend in the world, your story, is always there to remind you to get to work.

Until next time, keep those keyboards warm.

-John

1 comment:

  1. I'm not writing a book, but I keep detailed lists of ideas, projects, goals etc... i have found the cloud to be my very best tool.

    ReplyDelete