Monday Morning Motivators to Slay Your Writing Dragons

The ABC’s of Writing from CJ:

People will often ask me if I’m a seat of the pants writer or if I outline or plot ahead of time. They want to know everything about how I write–do I have a schedule, a certain daily page count, do I write everyday…..

It’s always interesting to hear how someone else accomplishes their goals–and after all, we have the same goal, finishing a book, just different paths. But I worry that others will take what works for me (which varies from day to day as much as the weather) and think that’s the Only way or even worse, the Right Way.

There’s only one way I know to accomplish your writing goals. I call it the ABC method of writing. Want in on the secret?

Apply Butt to Chair and write the damn book.

Just that simple and just that hard.

When I’m struggling, procrastinating (trying to tell myself that watching TV is really research–yeah, right!), or avoiding, I remember the ABC’s of writing. I sit back down and write.

Maybe only fifty words, maybe only ten–maybe more but it’s total crap. Doesn’t matter, in the long run it all adds up to a finished book, one baby step at a time. But funny thing. When I’m honest with myself in facing that for some reason I’m avoiding writing, when I do Apply my Butt to the Chair and just write the damn book, an amazing thing often happens.

That damn book gets written.

So there you go, my one and only writing secret revealed! Try it!

Thanks for reading,
CJ
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a national bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller." The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, is due out January, 2009. Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net

Margie Lawson -- presenter, psychotherapist, writer -- lives at the top of a Colorado mountain west of Denver. Margie merged her two worlds, psychology and writing, to develop psychologically anchored editing systems and techniques that teach writers how to write page turners. A former college professor, Margie works as a psychotherapist, writes fiction and nonfiction, and presents full day master classes for writers internationally. Go to http://www.margielawson.com for more information.