Comments on: How Badly Do You Want It?

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:50:13 +0000

Jane – thanks! Yes, the early passion can fade but I do finish my stories. Most of the time. If anything I have too much discipline – sometimes I need to step away from the computer and go and do something else. 🙂

Cara – thanks for posting and the advice, Cara! You’re right, it is a long journey. And an exhausting one sometimes. But what can you do but keep going? I can’t not write. 🙂

By: Cara Cooper

Cara Cooper — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:26:12 +0000

Good luck with the new submission Jackie. I do think that writing every day does help huge amounts to keep the momentum going and that’s a big plus. A large part of being successful in writing is discipline, the self-discipline to get stuff down on paper regardless of what the world throws at us. And finally…. to finish. That’s an incredibly difficult thing given all the other distractions and given one’s own inner voice that insists on telling you it’s rubbish, it’s not working etc etc. You obviously do finish, and you do submit and that means you’re very far on the way there. So many people who say they ‘write’ never get round to finishing and never submit and therefore don’t even reach the useful rejection stage. It’s a journey as we all know and for most of us a very long one!

By: Jane Writes Romance

Jane Writes Romance — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:13:20 +0000

I agree with Kate, that you need to centre yourself before reading through an editor's comments, or you may start misreading or not really hearing what's being said.

It's great to have so much passion, but this job is as much about discipline and being able to write even when maybe you don't feel as passionate as you should. After a number of novels, that early passion and enthusiasm for your story may start to flag on occasion - that's when you know you're a professional writer, because the book still gets written!

I don't think blogging about it needs to add to any sense of failure though. If anything, it can act as an extra spur.

Good luck with the new submission!

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:20:37 +0000

Jo – ah, a woman after my own heart! Glad to see someone who is obsessive as I am. 😉 Yeah, exhausting is right. And I probably DO need to be a bit more balanced than I am, but then finding the happy medium isn’t something I’ve been able to do in my writing so I’m not surprised I haven’t been able to do it my life either!
Anyway, yep, love it too much to stop!

By: Jo Dixon

Jo Dixon — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:59:59 +0000

Have you ever read on those articles on Life-Work balance and thought (quite smugly) 'oh, no my life is perfectly balanced... I'm doing what I love, it's all good.' ???

Well, I do - or rather I did, until I suddenly realised I'm not balanced at all! Writing rules everything, it's there in my head ALL the time. Plotting, planning, running scenes, getting deep, deep into my heroes POV.

Oh, yeah. I want this! I want to write stories, I want to see them published, I want readers to laugh and cry and love my characters.

So, I'm with you Jackie. Wanting this can be exhausting and trying to balance the writing (and the thinking about writing)with all the other demands of life is really difficult - but we wouldn't be like this, if we didn't love it.

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:01:04 +0000

Suzanne – Then we must go out and get it! 🙂

By: Suzanne Jones

Suzanne Jones — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:16:52 +0000

Yep, I want it bad, too.

XX

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Kate - Lol! Not to worry, your advice is worth posting that many times. :-) Thanks for that. I can understand keeping it a secret - but I don't think I could. I'm too much of a drama queen. :-) But yes, the public journey sometimes is more stress. Then again, it comes around with all the support I receive so on balance, I think I'd rather be open than not. I just have to change my attitude to 'failing' I think.
But you're spot on when it comes to me being over-analytical. I try too hard and over think. I'm also not good with being obvious. So sometimes my characters act out of what seems like over the top emotion, but it's just that I wasn't obvious enough about why they acted that way. And of course, I don't keep the conflict simple enough - always adding more stuff in there.
Anyway, that's something I need to work on and hopefully it's something I've managed in the last sub. We'll see.
Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it.

Caroline - Hehe. Me too!

Cat - great re your daughter! You've got her well trained. What is it with girls that age and chatter? Mine is only 9 but she talks non stop! :-)
Yes, trusting is the key huh? I don't have much trust these days. Add anxiousness into the mix and you've got a recipe for disaster. I'm a sad case. I need to try meditation or something! :-)

Amy - yep, can't do balance. I'm an all or nothing kind of person. But I think I need learn. *sighs*. Shall check out those 10 tips. Thanks!

Susan - big hugs. I have no patience either, yet another probably bad thing for a writer. And you DO know. You're doing it right now. Like Cat said, trust yourself. :-)

By: susanwilson44

susanwilson44 — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:07:02 +0000

Jackie, ‘whatever’ isn’t in my vocabulary! How long has it been? Certainly is. My biggest issue is patience, with others and with myself, I have none!
Still contemplating what i have to do to get this right and I still wonder if I’ll ever know…

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:55:56 +0000

Oooh, Balance (and I capitalize it for a reason). VERY VERY tricky. I hit that very hard "balance" wall years ago in my day job. I had to reach rock bottom before I figured out how to fix it.

It CAN be done. But it takes hard work and ongoing adjustments - at least it does for me. Learning how to maintain the passion, to be able to enjoy "today" (whatever it brought you), and balance that with a drive/commitment to succeed in the future is quite difficult. Some days I'm good at it. Others, not so much. Nathan Bransford has an excellent post on his blog entitled "The Ten Commandments of a Happy Writer" (or something like that). I have read it many times. It really helps me.

As you can see, I have no answers for you. No surprise there, eh?

As always, wishing you the very best of luck, Jackie!!

Amy