I realized that I made mention of elaborating on something which I never ended up doing – not wholly abnormal for me considering the varying plateaus of thought I switch to constantly. Anyway, back on topic, I’m talking about the whole ‘writer’s loneliness’ thing I wrote about previously.

Discussion about points 9-11, 13 begins now. Just to recap: #s 9-11 discuss the laziness of writers in general, while #13 talks about the importance of realizing rejection and getting past it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the ‘excellent citations and examples’ I was going to give when I originally began writing that entry.

“A person must realize that writing is a daily routine, not the result of an occasional inspiration. The Writer has to find the time every day to sit down and write. Keeping a journal is one way of sitting down and writing. The beginning writer cannot use his job as an excuse for not writing.” – #9.

This is something that needs to be discovered through personal experience, otherwise it’ll never ring true. I would know – one of the desi writers has been drilling this into me since day one. ‘Color Me In’ – a short story I wrote about family skeletons was my own turning point. I had to get on it again and again. It’s taken me about a decade of writing to get to this point. Advice is all well and good, but actually seeing it for yourself, in action – pursuing this course of action on your own initiative really works wonders.

Writing, like any other serious pursuit, must be won by diligence and discipline. Just because it’s an art doesn’t mean it can’t be owned although to an extent, words in themselves will always be the elusive enigmas they are.

#11 is something I believe I’ve already covered throughout this blog. When you’re not writing, don’t blame it on the right inspiration or whatever excuse, when the plain, simple and rather glaring fact is you simply don’t want to. I know it’s often the reason I’ve got. Take the latest story, for instance – “Numb”. I just didn’t want to get into it, because I wasn’t sure where it’d take me – my stories often seem to be letters I seem to be writing myself, thereby proving Zafon’s timeless quote: “A story is a letter the writer writes to himself to tell himself things he wouldn’t be able to discover otherwise”. This is true on many, many levels. So when you’re scared of where a story’s going to take you, and don’t want to take the risk, eventually…if you’re not careful – it consumes you. Fortunately, I shared this fear with a friend who simply told me there’s nothing to the game without risk. One of our members stated this very thing (a lack of courage to write) on a comment on ‘The Bitch is Back’ post. My advice isn’t new: grow a pair and get out there. Everyone has an ego which will inevitably be knocked around a bit, but that’s no reason not to try. On that note, I should learn to take my own advice when it comes to program applications and writing competitions. Go figure, huh? I, however, have been out there. And trust me, it hurts. But you get right back on that horse and keep trying until you hit gold.

I think I may have gone off on a tangent there. I seem to have melded point #11 with posting on our forums. Whoops. 🙂

But seriously, with the 150+ members we’ve got not more than 10 who actually post. My question is simple: What exactly are you so terrified of? Being hurt, bashed into little pieces? What about us? Do you think it was easy? That we just breezed by? It hurt. And it always does, always will, but you take what you want and discard the rest, and then come back for more. Nothing’s better than being around your peers, learning and growing with them by your side. Chances are you’ll make a few friends — you’re surrounded by people who do exactly what you do — in gallons. Surely that has to count for something?

If you’re a writer, you have to be prepared for rejection. If anything, you’ll develop a thick skin after it all, and better able to take the undoubted rejection slips that will inevitably find their way to you. No writer I know hasn’t been rejected in some way or form. But if you’ve been through the moral, emotional and critical bashing phase, you learn to move on. A lot quicker, too.

Think about it.