Shut Up and WRITE!

Okay, so I may have stepped on some toes with the title. No offense meant. I just had to make a point. Some authors let the cares of the world get in the way of their writing. They worry about every little typo as they put the words on paper (or post it as electrons, whichever your preference may be). They fret over punctuation or grammatical correctness. And some of them stew over these things so much that the story never gets told, because that voice in their heads is making so much noise that it is hard to remember why they wanted to write in the first place.

So, to keep the matter short and sweet, I suggest you turn off that voice--tell it to take a hike until you call for it. Some authors I have heard of even turn off their monitors so they won't see all the problems that can distract them from their task! Now, that is a bit extreme for me, but whatever works, I guess. They only turn it back on to see where they left off or to use the spell-checker, etc. (Memorize the Ctrl/S function and you can relax a bit). The old saying is that "when you are on a roll, let nothing interfere...." I have to agree. Let nothing interfere, if at all possible. We have all had the experience of being so engrossed in reading a good book that we forget to eat or sleep. What is needed as an author is to be so engrossed in the current writing session that we do the same thing. Get the creative juices flowing and let nothing short of death or the Second Coming interfere. I know, I know! Life happens. Just do your best, okay?

"The day is sufficient to the evil there-of"---or something like that (you scriptorians can help me out). Anyway, what it means is that there are enough worries for today and some for tomorrow, so be patient and just take care of todays' concerns. What that means to me is minimize the hoopla that gets in the way of a good writing session. Sort out the details later, but write the plot now! Build the car now and paint and polish later. Plant and water the seeds--weed later....

Well, I am sure you get the picture--and I need to shut up and write....