#43: What’s a sitzfleisch?
According to A.Word.A.Day from Anu Garg at Wordsmith.org, “sitzfleisch” is the ability to sit through something boring, long enough to complete a task. It’s “chair glue.” Some call it “cheeks in seat.” Garg says, “It’s often the difference between, for example, an aspiring writer and a writer.”
How’s your sitzfleisch these days? What keeps you from the chair? Be honest now: what excuses do you use? (Some days, any excuse will do, right?) Why not sit for a few minutes–right now–and write about how hard it is to sit for a few minutes and just…write. (Let me know how it goes! Email mary@laughlady.com.)
#42: Connections Everything good that’s ever happened to me in my writing career has happened through connections. My connection with God started it all. The “call” to write was clear, as if God said, “This is the time. Your job is to write. Do it.” No question. I’m here to be a writer.
The next level of connections came through writers’ groups. I met writers and editors. Attending conferences, I connected with more publishers, editors, writers and agents. I learned. I improved. I got published. I wrote books.
If you’re feeling stuck, stifled and stagnant, get out there! Connect. Find some kindred spirits to sharpen and encourage you. If you’re called to write, you need to connect. Think about what you could do, where you could go, make your plan and then, just write.
#41: Sacrifices Sacrifice is required to exercise the writing gift. We’ll spend time and energy on writing that could have gone to other pursuits. Hobbies, friendships, even some family connections may be sacrificed. Some opportunities certainly will be sacrificed.
Anything in this world worth doing requires sacrifice of some kind. The question is this: are you willing to make the sacrifices needed to write what you’ve been given to write?
Set the timer for ten minutes and think: What have you been given to write? What sacrifices will you make to write? Think and then, just write.
#40: Wake Up and Write the Coffee Author Deborah Raney (working on her 20th book!) posted on Facebook the other day that she was enjoying the aroma of fresh ground coffee beans. A friend replied, “I wish I could smell the coffee through my computer.” Humble Deborah wrote back, “If I was any kind of writer, I would have used words that MADE you smell the coffee!”
That’s our job, isn’t it? To take readers to where we are, or where we’ve been, and help them sense what we sensed. We can write, “It’s a gorgeous fall day,” but how much better to write that in such a way that the reader sees the fire in the trees, feels the frosted autumn chill, inhales with us the dry dust of summer’s abandonment, and hears the rattle of the last oak leaves as cold wind assails them.
Can the reader see, taste, smell, hear and touch that gorgeous fall day? Be the kind of writer who makes that happen. Right now, picture a place, a moment in time and take the reader there. See it? Now, just write.
#39: Daydream Believer (Guest post by Becky Tidberg)
For the past two years my daughter’s parent-teacher conferences having included discussions of her most evident weakness. The conversations have been rife with words like “pokey,” “slow to complete assignments,” or “easily distracted.”
When asked about this phenomenon, my seven-year-old is quick to explain that she has trouble focusing on her assignments because she is engaging in the mortal sin of (gasp) daydreaming.
Since I spend a chunk of every day immersed in a story world of my own creation, I can hardly reprimand her. In fact, I’ve looked for ways to encourage what I consider to be a lost art.
My daughter and I carve out time to sit on the couch and look out the window during different times of the day, we brainstorm why that man is walking down the street carrying a mysterious package and bounce back and forth “what if’s.” We look at pictures in magazines and give the models super powers or fatal flaws.
Suspense author James Bell Scott tweeted last week, “Dream for five minutes, work for fifty-five. A good ratio.”
So, go find yourself a good view, a comfy chair and take some time to daydream…and then just write. (Thanks, Becky!)
#38: The Gift
Jan Karon, of Mitford fame, had a successful advertising career. She gave it up, sacrificing everything to pursue the writing dream. She was tested, she says, and it was during a time of despair that she “turned it all over to God.”
That’s when her talent became a “gift.” She says, “A talent is a bold running creek. A gift is an ocean. A gift is a bigger thing–you can draw on it more deeply.”
Is your writing a talent or a gift? How can you tell? Amazing things happen when God gets involved. Explore the idea of talents, gifts and God on the page. Set the timer for ten minutes, grab your favorite writing tool and then just write.