Aug 27 2008
Discipline: Why Writers Need to be Strong
In my early 20s I dated a beautiful young woman whose father was a Basque. We went to a restaurant one night with her married sister and her husband. A minor argument arose and my date would not budge from her position, even though it was fairly apparent that she was wrong.
After her display of stubbornness, her brother-in-law took me aside and said, “Listen, Steve, you must understand, Basque blood runs through these women’s veins, and the Basques were at war for many generations straight. The long war was terrible and the children of weak Basques were never born.”
The same applies to the projects of weak writers: they are never born.
Writers have to have the strength of discipline to finish their projects. They have to be tough. They have to be strong. Writers are one click away from a world of diversion on the Internet. If they work at home, they are a few steps away from the seduction of a television, a bed or a kitchen.
It takes discipline to start writing and keep writing.
Those who aren’t real writers may not believe this. “After all,” they think, “what could be so hard about sitting at a desk tapping on a keyboard or writing in a notebook? How could that take discipline?”
That kind of response betrays the fact that they have never seriously written. All true writers know that writing is a wonderful thing, but doing it well is more difficult than breaking rocks – that is, until you get in “the zone” or in “the glory” and it seems to be flowing through you. But getting to that point is brutal and demands the discipline of a Prussian drillmaster.
The most difficult part of writing is starting. When you start, you’re cold. Going from cold to warm and hopefully to hot is a grueling process. It takes discipline to sit there and not get up and not click away from your project and not start thinking of something else.
The solution?
There is no easy solution. The fact is, there’s no way around – only through. You have to plug yourself in and keep writing until you warm up. And every time you are interrupted, you have to start the process again. If you do, your muse will come to you because you have proven you are worthy of her presence – not because of your talent, but because you had the discipline to get started and keep going … again and again.
I need to read this every morning. Great post, and to the point. Stumbled.
When I started my blog, I thought that I would be able to write posts on a daily basis. It takes strict discipline just to post weekly. Distractions are everywhere.
Great post! And it is true for everyone working from home.