Stop being so busy.
Busy is the enemy of Art.
Busy is the avoidance of Pain, and Pain is the only way to grow.
Art comes from Pain.
Busy kills productivity.
You will never be happy when you are Busy. But you will never be sad either.
Busy, like all drugs, can become an escape. It will always end in failure.
Be where your butt is, where your feet are. Be with your fingers and in the lining of your Lungs. Going in. Going out. Your shoulders relaxing into the world.
I used to think you should start a novel on page one with a bang, that you should throw the reader straight into conflict. I heard agents and publishers want a novel full of conflict, one that immediately hooks them, and I thought, I can do that. So I cut out all my world building and backstory and focused on the central plot from the very beginning.
Now I know how misguided I was. While it’s true you can take too long to introduce conflict to your novel, there is such a thing as too much, too soon.
Well, the time has come to once again pick a winner of this month’s writing competition. I’m never sure how to do this, this announcing the winner thing. I’d like to console everyone who didn’t win, hold their hands and say, “You’re still a good writer. Don’t worry.” But compassion often looks like pity and who wants to be pitied.
Sometimes it’s better to just get it over with.
Submissions for the Show Off Writing Contest: Spring Edition are now closed.
What I’ve learned from these contests is that we have to practice submitting our writing just as we practice creating it. Submitting is not easy. It’s painful, scary. You feel vulnerable when you do it. I like what Christy said, “I have been reading The Write Practice for months but have not had the courage to submit anything until now.”
I think the biggest winners of this contest are those of you who have never entered anything before. Now, you can say you have. You took a shot at something. Even if you don’t win, you’ve practiced taking a risk on the chance you might. That’s a valuable thing to learn.
Have you ever thought about that? Detective stories, murder mysteries, legal thrillers—these are among the most popular genres in popular literature, but have you ever thought about why people like them so much?
