by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
If the brilliance of prose can be judged on the effect it has on people, then a number of sentences I’ve written recently are of Pulitzer quality. They certainly made a significant impact on my life.
Here are three of them:
- “Relax, Jim. You can explore Quora for a few more minutes before you start writing.”
- “Just watch one more set of downs before diving in. Heck, college football is finally back on the air, you have to see how the Dawgs are doing this year!”
- “Start tomorrow morning. You’ll be fresh and the words will flow much easier. Besides, it’d do you good to play your guitar for bit.”
I’m guessing more than a few of you have written prose even more compelling. Prose you wrote inside your head that inspired you to put off your writing once again.
Does it help to know you’re not alone? To know I’m not the only one who procrastinates helps me. A little.
But to get a stranglehold around the throat of procrastination I think we have to go deeper and ask why we put off our writing. What’s the core reason those excuses resonate with such truth we often embrace them and put off getting to—what for many of us—is our life’s deepest purpose?
For me it’s often fear. Fear it won’t be good enough. Fear it won’t be as good as last time. Fear the bottom of the well has turned to dust.
Acknowledging the fear is the first step.
The second? Realize that action cures fear. Confidence (positive emotion toward our writing) usually comes after action, not before. In other words, start. Even if we don’t feel like it, we begin.
Step three. Do it again the next day, and the next, and the next.
Stop reading this. Start writing.
Who knows, we might write a few words that change a life.
James L. Rubart
What if You Woke up One Morning and the Darkest Parts of Yourself Were Gone?
Toren Daniels vanished eight months back, and his wife and kids have moved on—with more than a little relief. Toren was a good man but carried a raging temper that often exploded without warning. So when he shows up on their doorstep out of the blue, they’re shocked to see him alive. But more shocked to see he’s changed. Radically.
His anger is gone. He’s oddly patient. Kind. Fun. The man he always wanted to be. Toren has no clue where he’s been but knows he’s been utterly transformed. He focuses on three things: Finding out where he’s been. Finding out how it happened. And winning back his family.
But then shards of his old self start to rise from deep inside—like the man kicked out of the NFL for his fury—and Toren must face the supreme battle of his life.
In this fresh take on the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, James L. Rubart explores the war between the good and evil within each of us—and one man’s only chance to overcome the greatest divide of the soul.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski and dirt bike with his two grown sons, and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish his stories. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY and RT Book Reviews award winning author of nine novels, a speaker, branding expert, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington. More at jamesLrubart.com